The Beginning of the Rest of Our Lives
by Smile Life Away
Summary: Kim has just graduated high school, and her biggest concern is how to tell Jared that she's leaving for the other side of the country at the end of the summer. However, when Kim's best friend goes missing, Kim's life is about to get much more complicated.
1. Graduation Day

**A/N: I'm putting an author's note in this chapter so that I don't have to do one for any chapter afterwards (although one may show up in the final chapter). This story has eleven chapters already written (there will be a total of 28 + epilogue), and it will be updated once a week unless my computer spontaneously explodes or I'm feeling very nice. This is also the only time I will request reviews for this story. They help me improve my writing. **

**Thanks to all of the people who helped make this story a possibility: She Wrote That (who worked on chapter one), Lonni (who worked on chapters one and two), and NYKIDDO. Without your beta work I never would've been able to publish. **

**Disclaimer: I own no recognizable characters. However, I did create the image for this story myself. **

**Chapter One: Graduation Day**

* * *

"Good morning, graduates."

Kim Connweller forced a smile at her mirror. It reminded her of the smile that her mother had given her when she was in labor with Kim's brother six years before.

"Congratulations, graduates," she tried again. "Good morning!" Her voice fell flat, and she frowned at the mirror. In the same moment, her ponytail holder snapped, and the messy ponytail she had worn to bed fell in a ratty mess around her face. "Perfect," she grumbled.

Kim stared into her reflection in the mirror and realized that wearing her hair in a wet ponytail to bed the night before had been a bad idea. No; it had been an awful idea. There was no way she would be ready for graduation in time, but she had bigger problems.

"Good morning, graduates, and welcome to today's graduation exercises. My name is Kimberly Connweller, and I am your valedictorian." She tried to smile and failed.

Kim was not the original choice for valedictorian; the first choice had moved to Chicago three days before graduation, and the salutatorian had been caught smoking pot in the bathroom and was expelled. The result was that Kim now had to make a speech in front of the entire school and their families, and she didn't even have an introduction.

"There has to be some law against this," she grumbled.

Kim picked up the outline that she had managed to scribble down when she had received the phone call from the principal telling her that in-spite of her B- in the third quarter of her junior year in history, she had the third highest grade point average, and therefore would be expected to make a speech in place of the school's original valedictorian.

"Good morning," she tried again, failing to make her smile appear natural. "As the valedictorian of this year's class, I wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you today," she paused for a breath.

"Kimmy!" The call came from outside of her bedroom door, and it was followed by three rapid knocks before her mother walked in with her face in a frazzled expression. "Kimmy, we're leaving in thirty minutes; hurry up!"

When the door closed again, she checked her progress. Her normally wispy hair was doubly problematic, also being ratty. Kim was still in pajamas and her face was imprinted from where she had fallen asleep on her arm the night before and, of course, she still did not have a speech properly prepared. It didn't matter though, because she was out of time to write one. She would have to wing it. Kim had never been good at winging things.

Sighing, the girl turned to the clothes her mother had picked out for her the night before when she realized that her oldest child would be making an important speech in front of the whole school. The outfit was nothing special; just a black skirt, a white blouse and business heels. Kim zipped her navy robe over the ensemble and layered on the three cords that she'd received; one for student government where she spent the year counting money, one for Science Honors Society, and finally an honors cord that she received despite the B- because of the final exam, her saving grace. The exam had given her an A and a perfect 4.0 that paled in comparison to the respective grade point averages of the actual valedictorian and salutatorians; who both benefited from various summer classes.

Finally Kim turned her attention to her hair and, realizing it was a lost cause, pulled it back into a braid not unlike those she had worn to school almost every day for the past four years. It seemed right somehow. And if nothing else, at least her hair looked decent beneath the graduation cap.

"Good morning," she said one last time to the mirror. This time she put all of her energy into the smile, but it still looked like she was about to have a root canal.

"Kimmy, we're leaving now!"

"Coming, Mom."

Kim grabbed the outline of her speech and a few blank note-cards before starting down the stairs. She did her best to not trip in her robe, which would mean a tumble down the stairs and a broken neck, but then she considered the fact that a broken neck would get her out of making a speech. She pushed the sardonic thought away.

"Ready, Mom!"

"Good. Your brother is already in the car." Her mother did not look the least bit impressed with her daughter in her graduation robes. Instead, she pursed her lips the way she always did when she found something distasteful. "Your father won't be able to make it."

Kim's father worked in Seattle. It wasn't a short commute, but that wasn't the reason he would not be able to make it. Her mother's face showed the truth; her father's boss was keeping him there on overtime. Again. More importantly, Kim should not complain because he was earning the money that _she_desperately needed.

"Okay, Mom." Kim steeled her gaze so that she would not seem ungrateful. Her mother's unsaid declaration was right: they were making sacrifices – big ones – and she did need the money.

The car ride to graduation was silent. Kim's younger brother Austin, who was twelve, was tapping away at his Nintendo DS while she rehearsed the introduction and tried to think of what to say next. Her best friend, Samantha, had suggested an anecdote about high school, but she didn't have any cute, funny stories to share.

"Why don't you talk about the time you threw your lunch in Paul's face?" Samantha had joked. It was her best friend's favorite story. But as far as Kim was concerned it was not funny at all, just embarrassing. Besides, she hadn't thrown it and it was Samantha's fault anyway.

It had all happened on the first day of sophomore year. The lunch lady gave Kim the wrong meal, and Samantha insisted that Kim go back and demand either the right meal or a refund. Filled with early-sophomore year invincibility, Kim had picked up her tray and started to march back to the counter when her shoe caught on a crack in the ground and her tray went flying. Unfortunately, Paul Lahote had been walking by at the same moment, and as she crashed to the floor, her food was catapulted into his face. If Jared Cameron hadn't been watching the whole thing and come to her rescue, Kim was pretty sure Paul would have ripped off her face.

The event in itself was traumatizing, but more importantly it birthed a crush that she developed for Jared, a crush that lasted all of sophomore and the first semester of junior year. He'd finally started talking to her in the third quarter, and Kim had earned her B- shortly thereafter. Even though it had all worked out in the end, the fact that Paul brought it up whenever she saw him meant that she relived that particular embarrassment quite often.

"Good morning," Kim said aloud, ignoring her brother's quizzical look at the sudden break in silence. "My name is Kimberly Connweller and, as the valedictorian of this year's class, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you today. I would also like to thank the administration, especially Principal Challis, and all of the committees and coordinators that made graduation possible; thank you." She paused to breathe and smile.

"Kimmy," her mother interrupted before she could finish her speech. "We're here now, so just hold on and you'll be able to make your speech in a few minutes. Also, work on your smiling."

"Thanks, Mom." Kim grimaced and repeated the introduction in her head until the car stopped.

Seconds after her mother parked the car there was a tapping on the glass, and Kim glanced out. It was Samantha, and her tassel kept falling in her mouth.

Kim and Samantha had known each other since birth; they'd met in the hospital nursery. Sometime after, their mothers had started bringing each girl over to the other one's house where they learned how to walk and talk together. Everyone had always described them as inseparable, and then in kindergarten Bradley Donovan was added to their group, Of course, Brad didn't talk to Kim anymore. He'd stopped talking to her junior year, third quarter.

"Are you ready?" Samantha spit out her tassel as she asked the question.

"No. I don't know what to say." In fact, her heart was thundering and her stomach was twisting as Samantha led the way to the school gym.

"I told you; give an anecdote," she stressed.

"I don't have one."

"What about in biology when you threw up at the heart dissection and then switched to chemistry only to become president of the Science Honors Society. It's a great brag story."

"No, that was gross. Besides, no one wants to listen to me talk about myself."

"Well, then," Samantha pouted, "that rules out my second idea." She waited and Kim took the bait.

"Which was?"

"The time when you skipped school with Jared and the school called your mom."

Kim flicked her best friend in the temple. "I told you, Samantha, I didn't skip school _with_Jared. I skipped school because I wasn't ready for the physics test and Jared just happened to be skipping as well. It was a coincidence."

"Fine…fine…what about when you fell out of your chair in history last year and Jared failed the pop quiz because he was so concerned about you." This time there was obvious disgust in her voice which always seemed to come after any mention of Kim's boyfriend. Of course, these days it was Samantha who brought him up.

"Samantha, Jared failed that quiz because he sucks at history."

The two girls stopped outside of the auditorium, and Kim ignored Samantha's comments of 'sure, whatever you say.'

"Maybe I'll just talk about 'reaching for the stars' and crap like that," Kim suggested.

"Well, if that's the best you got. Good luck, Kimmy. I'll see you later. Your douche-bag boyfriend is coming."

A moment later, Jared's hulking frame replaced the last remnants of Samantha's retreating shadow.

Like Brad, Samantha didn't like Jared and she made no secret of it. However, while Brad had genuine reasoning, Samantha's was based purely on the fact that since Kim and Jared had started dating; the two girls had been hanging out less and less.

"Ready?" He smiled as he greeted her.

"Yeah, totally," Kim lied, but her eyes gave her away.

Kim was suddenly glad that she had Samantha. Jared was her boyfriend, soul mate, imprinter etc. but she had never been able to talk to him the way she could Samantha, Brad, or even Emily. At first it had been because she didn't know him; he was just this boy she'd had a crush on who finally talked to her and caught her speechless. After she found out about the pack and imprinting it had only been a little easier, partly because she knew that everything she said might end up being repeated in the heads of the entire pack. But mostly this was because imprinting made him see her as perfect, and Kim was far from perfect. He could never understand that.

"You'll do great." He wrapped his arms around her waist. "You deserve that spot, and if you get scared just stare at me and pretend we're having a conversation."

Kim imagined standing up there just staring at Jared and pretending to have a conversation about the future – their future. For some reason that was not reassuring, especially since she hadn't even told him the truth about _her_future.

She smiled weakly as she met his eyes. "Yeah, I'll try."

He misinterpreted her added fear at what she would eventually have to tell him as simply nervousness and kissed her.

"Your speech will be perfect."

The graduating class of La Push Senior High School was one-hundred and seventy three students. Most of them had been together since kindergarten with the exception of a select few like Margret O'Donnell. She had arrived during sophomore year because her father was writing his doctoral dissertation on Quileute tribal legends and culture.

As Kim sat in her seat behind the podium during the principal's introduction, she was aware that every person out there knew about the time she had eaten sand in kindergarten, when she'd kissed Cole Jacobson in seventh grade, when she'd 'thrown' food in Paul's face sophomore year, and of course when Jared had broken Brad's jaw at the junior prom. Any confidence she had managed to gain before this point was instantly swept away.

When Principal Challis finished his introduction, Kim stood up and took her place behind the podium with shaking, sweaty hands. She locked eyes with Samantha, whose grin made her look like she was about to laugh at any moment, and then at Jared who was staring up at her as though she was the most precious thing in the world. Because laughing would be the worst thing at this moment, she kept his gaze. After all, they would have to have this talk eventually.

"Good morning." She smiled at him and it almost felt natural. "My name is Kimberly Connweller, and as the valedictorian of this year's class I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you today. I would also like to thank the administration, especially Principal Challis, and all of the committees and coordinators that made graduation possible, thank you." She paused for a breath and turned her gaze to Samantha who was mouthing 'Paul' as if realizing that Kim had no idea what to say next. "It seems like just yesterday that we were tripping into first period, fighting to get our lockers open, and watching our lunches drip from Paul Lahote's face…or…maybe that was just me." It came out a bit nervous, but the graduates laughed anyway, and more surprisingly, their laughs were not malicious. They actually thought she was funny. Samantha shot her a thumbs up, and when Kim dared a glance at Paul she saw that he was laughing too. Of course, she was pretty sure he was laughing at her, and not with her.

"The future," Samantha mouthed.

"But look how far we've come. We're all here in our robes thinking about what comes next. Some of us are sorting through our college acceptance letters and trying to decide which school to attend. Some of us are applying to work at the nearest Burger King to save that extra money so that we can get out of La Push, and a lot of us are just trying to decide which graduation party to go to," she continued. "All of these deserve congratulations because of what they stand for. The fact that we are looking towards the future means that we are finished with high school forever and that is something worth being excited about. So, remember the good times, the bad times, the embarrassing times, and the times where you were sure your life was over only to realize that just because you wore the same shirt as that other girl freshman year it wasn't the end of the world. And now we're all looking forward to the wonderful things that are to come. Congratulations, fellow graduates! We've made it!"

They cheered.

As Kim took her seat again, the audience cheered, and she was in a daze for the rest of the graduation even after she received her diploma and turned her tassel.

"Kim!" Samantha was the first one to greet her when the ceremonies were over. She fought her way through the crows to hug Kim. Kim spat out the sleeve of Samantha's gown with much more drama than was needed. "You were brilliant, Kimberly Connweller, absolutely brilliant! It's a good thing you listened to me! Together, we wrote the best valedictorian speech I have ever heard!" she gushed in congratulations of herself.

"Samantha," Kim laughed, stopping her. "That was the only speech you've ever heard."

Samantha paused to consider this and then, sweeping her dark hair behind her shoulder and adjusting her glasses, sighed.

"Fine, Kimmy, but it was still great." She made a motion with her hand and her expression turned sour. "Just ask your boyfriend."

Kim turned and, sure enough, Jared was standing there.

"It was perfect, Kim," he reassured, "just like I knew it would be. I'm not sure how psyched Paul is though."

"It doesn't matter though because you're here to protect her." The magnitude of Samantha's sarcasm screamed in Kim's ear, but Jared either didn't notice or pretended not to.

"Of course," he smiled. "Forever."

"Well I wonder how that's going to work with her –"

"Samantha!" Kim cut her off, suddenly realizing what she was about to say. "Can we talk?"

She did not wait for an answer before she led Samantha away from Jared and into the crowd of people.

"What?" she huffed.

"He doesn't know," Kim admitted.

Samantha gaped. "You haven't told him!" she hissed. When she regained her voice it was hollow with shock. "Well, when are you going to-"

"I'll get around to it," Kim promised. "I mean, what am I supposed to say? 'Hey, Jared I've been accepted into Georgetown University all the way across the country. I've already paid the deposit and my dad has been working extra hours so that I'll be able to pay for the first semester even with the scholarship and financial aid I'm getting, so I'm going and I won't see you until Christmas'?"

"Well, you don't have to say all _that_." Samantha seemed shocked, but then Kim knew she did not understand Jared. She didn't know anything about the pack or imprinting, and all she knew about the legends were the scary stories that no one actually believed. "But you do have to tell him. What were you planning on doing, sneaking out one night and just not coming back?"

Now that Samantha mentioned it, it didn't seem like such a bad idea.

"I'm working on it, just don't say anything," Kim begged.

"Alright, Kim…fine." It came out as an annoyed sigh.

"Promise me," Kim ordered.

"I promise." Samantha held out her pinky and Kim took it.

Relieved, Kim started to turn away but stopped when Samantha tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, Kim. I'm sorry, all right. He just bothers me, you know? First he ignores you for a year and a half, and then he's suddenly attracted to you! And then there was that thing with Brad, and how Jared's always around you, and you're scared of him…I can tell…I mean, why else would you be so terrified of telling him that you're going to Georgetown? If he was normal, he'd be happy for you."

_But he's not normal,_Kim thought.

Kim did not say that part out loud. She had been entrusted with secrets, and it was important that she kept them; she knew that.

"Don't be sorry." She hugged Samantha. "I swear I'll tell him, and we're going to have the best time tonight, Jared free. Just like we swore we'd do in elementary school."

"Yeah, okay," Samantha agreed, smiling. "I'll see you tonight."

When Samantha had disappeared, Kim considered what she had said. It was true that she did not want to tell Jared, and it was fair of Samantha to blame him for what had happened to Brad, but she wasn't afraid of him. Even after seeing Emily's scars and hearing the story behind them, Kim had never been afraid that Jared Cameron would hurt her. She just did not want to tell him because she knew he would interpret it as a betrayal, along with the rest of the pack. She wasn't ready for that just yet.

What was worse was that she knew that if Jared could tell she wanted it; wanted it badly enough, he would pretend to be happy for her. He would pretend so hard that it might convince her, but it would never convince the other members of the pack – his brothers. And Kim knew they would never take her side, not when it was Kim against ancient and powerful laws of nature.

Kim started through the crowd again, suddenly hoping she could find her mother and get out of the claustrophobic gym.

"It's so nice to see you again, Kimberly!" She was enveloped in a hug, and it was only after the mysterious person released her that she was able to visualize the woman that had grabbed her.

"Hello, Mrs. Cameron, Mr. Cameron." She started to turn away.

Unlike Kim's parents, Jared's parents knew about his 'condition' and for a reason Kim could not understand, his mother credited her for making his transition easier. Regardless, Jared's mom loved her because of it, and his dad loved her because it kept the peace.

"You never come over anymore," the woman said, and she started to talk again before Kim could make her escape.

Mrs. Cameron's statement was far from the truth. Kim had been over two weeks ago because Jared insisted he needed help studying for his English final.

"What are you planning on doing tonight?" the woman continued, making Kim suddenly aware of why she had been sought out.

"A friend of mine invited me over." Kim pretended not to notice their disappointed faces. "We've been planning this since forever, and she'll kill me if I bail now," she added.

"Oh, well that's too bad." Mrs. Cameron frowned. "We would have been so excited to have you over."

"Yeah, me too," Kim responded. It was not really a lie. Kim did enjoy spending time with Jared, but she had no interest in going there today. Samantha and she had been planning this night since elementary school, and there was no one she wanted to hang out with more except for maybe Brad, who had been in on the original plans. But then, he wasn't talking to her anymore. Even though this had been true for over a year, it was still difficult to digest. "But I'll see him tomorrow. Emily's having a 'thing'."

The vague term described the gatherings that Emily held that only expanded to the people who knew the pack secrets. Personally, Kim did not want to go to Emily's 'thing'. What she wanted was to get lost in Port Angeles looking for a summer job, but she had promised that she would be there. So for now, she was putting her own plans to the side.

"Oh right," Jared's mother acknowledged, pretending to have forgotten. "I guess we'll see you there, then."

"Yeah, I guess."

When Kim finally found her mother she was relieved, and as a result she appreciated the silent ride home even more.


	2. The Strange Situation Test

**Chapter Two: The Strange Situation Test**

* * *

"Kimmy."

The girl took off her headphones in response to her name. Kim turned in time to see her mother walk in and sit on her bed, as she tossed a pair of pajamas into her overnight bag for Samantha's house.

"Kimmy," the woman started again. "I'm glad you're going to hang out with Samantha, but I'm worried about you."

"Don't be." Kim attempted to cut her off before she started.

"I know you and Jared are close," her mother continued anyway, "and it's nice that you're hanging out with his friends, but what about your friends? You and Bradley used to be so close and now you don't even talk to each other."

"Things change, Mom." Kim brushed it off and zipped the bag closed with too much force. "People grow apart."

Kim was pretty sure her mother knew she was not telling the full truth, but she was not planning on giving her any more information. The woman did not know about Junior Prom, and Kim was positive that if she told her mother it would end with Kim bringing Brad a pie a whole year and a half too late. No, it was better to keep these things away from her mother.

"You, Bradley, and Samantha don't," her mother argued. "Jared Cameron is a nice boy, even if he is over here constantly, but no boy is worth losing your best friends over, Kimmy. Maybe the two of you will get married and live happily ever after, but more than likely once you go away you'll meet someone new and-"

"Mom," Kim cut her off. "I have to go. I told Samantha I would be there at four o'clock." Even though it was already June, Kim pulled a sweatshirt over her head. Summer did not rule out rain. "And…I wouldn't write Jared off just yet" _or ever._ After all, he'd made it pretty clear this imprinting thing was forever.

"Well then," her mother seemed disappointed as she got up to leave the bedroom. "I hope you'll think about what I told you at least."

"Course I will." Kim meant it as a lie, but she knew that this conversation would consume her thoughts for the rest of the night, and would probably stop her from having any fun at Samantha's.

When her mother left the room, Kim bent down to tie her shoe only to be interrupted by a large shadow. She _had_ to remember to close her window more often.

"You know, Jared. We do have a front door." She looked up.

Jared Cameron was standing before her, his hair dripping water and his shirt missing. She was suddenly struck with how unfair it was that he could walk around in cut-off jeans and look hot while she could lather on make-up and still only hope for pretty.

"Sorry." He wasn't sorry. "I just stopped by to see if you were still coming to Emily's tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'm coming."

She was not sure why his expression turned suddenly gleeful – more so than usual, but then he did have this thing about seeing her every day. And he meant _every _day, without fail. There had only been one time that he had gone three days without seeing her, and the results were so pathetic Kim stayed away from thinking about them.

"And you're going to Samantha's tonight?"

She nodded, slightly annoyed that he needed to have her entire schedule memorized.

"And you'll be at her house the entire night."

"Yes, Jared." She gritted her teeth.

"You promise?"

"I swear, Jared. I'll be at Samantha's house the entire night and I'll be back tomorrow morning, and I'll be at Emily's by two o'clock tomorrow, all right!" She did not mean to snap at him, but he was really starting to bother her.

"Can I drive you?" His brown eyes were needy.

"Only if you promise not to stop over, call, or text during the night." Kim waited for his response with her arms crossed.

He did not look pleased. "…What if I just-"

"Jared, promise me. I'll be fine, and this is _really _important to Samantha." She paused. "Besides, if I never go away you'll never miss me."

"Not true," he seemed genuinely offended. In an instant he was so close she could feel his breath on her face. "I always miss you."

"That's because you're not securely attached." She joked pushing him away and throwing the bag over her shoulder.

"What does that even mean?"

"Psychology, Jared. I know you took it because I did your outline on Piaget while you were running around with Sam."

"Exactly why I don't remember."

"Except attachment theory was Bowlby and Ainsworth, not Piaget."

He stared at her dumb-founded, and Kim remembered that even if he looked gorgeous in the rain, he'd still barely graduated. Of course, that was mostly due to his involvement with the pack. Still, she could not expect him to remember first semester psychology.

"You're welcome to stay in my room, but I'm leaving. So if you want to drive me –"

He jumped up before she could finish. _Stupid imprint_. She buried the thought and let him take her bag for her. She would have to ask Emily if this whole 'animal devotion' thing ever wore off, or maybe she would just wait and see so she could be pleasantly surprised.

It was odd. Kim had now what in sophomore year she would have sold a kidney for, but she didn't feel satisfied. Jared Cameron was her boyfriend and he was unconditionally devoted to her, but all she really wanted was a boy she could get in fights with because he'd forgot about their anniversary. Instead, Jared reminded her that: 'I remember the day you told me your favorite color was green.' Really? What kind of boy did that? A shape-shifter that had imprinted, that was who.

And yes, when he had gone to fight for the Cullens she'd been worried sick about him. She'd even gotten a C on a physics test because she was so upset, and when he had come back she'd let him sleepover, since her parents were out anyway and Austin had just discovered World of Warcraft. Now things had calmed down though, he wasn't in danger and neither was she. The result was that his hovering felt less sweet and more suffocating.

They pulled up to Samantha's house at five minutes after four, and Kim could see her best friend peeking out of the window. If Kim had been riding with anyone else she knew Samantha would not have cared, but since it was Jared's Ford Explorer Kim knew she was about to feel the girl's wrath.

Kim barely managed to get her seat belt off before he was opening the door for her, and Kim forced a smile.

"Thanks." She smiled. "I'll see you to tomorrow."

"Bye, Kim. I love you."

She slid off the seat and onto the ground. "Yeah, Jared…I know." He waited, and she could tell he was about to ask her what was wrong, so she sucked in her annoyance. "I love you too."

She kissed him before he could read the lie in her eyes.

For a moment she was back in junior year, third quarter, back when she was caught up in the initial exhilaration of being _liked_ by Jared Cameron, but then the kiss ended and Kim was back in reality. She high-tailed it to Samantha's front door and did not dare look back.

"You're late." Samantha opened the door, and a moment later Jared's car sputtered away.

"Sorry." Kim entered the house. "My mom was…never mind."

"From my view, it looked like Jared Cameron was the one holding you up."

There was something in the way that Samantha's eyebrows wiggled that made Kim laugh hysterically. It didn't matter that her best friend was serious and a little annoyed, the laughter rumbled in her stomach before spilling out, and before Kim knew it she was crying and couldn't breathe.

"Are…you okay?" The look Samantha gave her made it clear that she was more concerned with Kim's sanity than her respiratory system.

"I'm…fine…" Kim managed to stop the laughing and plopped on the sofa. "So, where's your mom?"

"At her boyfriend's house," Samantha gagged. "Don't worry though; she knows you're here."

"Great."

"Brad wanted to come." Samantha's voice suddenly became serious. "Even after I told him you were coming, but…he didn't want to cause trouble."

"What do you mean…trouble?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, Kimmy, Brad's kind of not so fond of your boyfriend." Samantha sat down beside her and reached for the remote. "But progress has been made; I mean he did want to see you. I think you should talk to him; especially since you're going away this summer. This could be your last chance."

Kim did not respond. She'd already listened to this from her mother, and now Samantha was jumping on the bandwagon. It wasn't that she didn't want to make up with Brad; he was her friend and everything was worse without him. It was just that she wasn't sure if she was ready to readdress the fateful night of Junior Prom. The night that had ruined everything they'd had for eleven years.

Jared had asked Kim to the Junior Prom one week before the event. Up until then she'd been planning on going with Samantha and Brad just like they'd done with homecoming, their eighth grade dance, and their fifth grade dance. Samantha was the only one of the three of them who really had the opportunity for a date because Brad was too shy to ask anyone, and as far as Kim was concerned she wasn't exactly dating material. As it turned out, Samantha had been asked, but she'd turned the boy down and the three of them were set to go together as best friends. Then, one week before the dance, Jared asked Kim to go with him.

At first, she was sure it was some sort of practical joke, or more likely some kind of bet. She almost said no, but the little voice in her head screaming 'Jared Cameron is asking you to go out with him!' took over, and she managed to squeak out a "sure" with a complete lack of "modern woman" composure.

After that, almost everything was perfect. Samantha even seemed to be excited for her in-spite of the fact that Kim had broken a tradition spanning back to the fifth grade. The only issue was Brad. He just shrugged when Kim told him she was not going with them and called Jared a "creepy dude."

Still, everything came together. She wore the red dress she had bought when she and Samantha had gone shopping; Jared bought her a corsage, and told her she looked beautiful. When they got to the dance Jared held her hand the whole time, and even though she was blushing she didn't tell him to let go because she was afraid she would fall in the heels her mother had stuffed on her feet. Besides, she liked the way his hand felt in hers. If possible, his touch made her feel beautiful.

Brad ruined everything, or maybe it was Jared, it was all so convoluted now. Her best friend wanted to dance with her, and sure he'd never done that before. Kim and Samantha knew better than anyone else that Brad _didn't _dance and there was no exception to that rule, so it caught her by surprise, but she wasn't unhappy. Her best friend wanted to dance with her. There was nothing to be unhappy about.

Kim had gone with him. Neither Kim nor Brad knew how to dance and the music was too slow to fake it, so they just kind of stood there, rocking back and forth with his hands around her waist and hers resting on his shoulders. Near the end of the song he leaned in and said "you look beautiful, Kim," and then the dance ended.

Kim turned away from him and was halfway to Samantha when she heard Jared's fist crack against Brad's jaw, and she wasn't the only one. Above the music and the chatter, there was the sound of Brad's bone shattering and then Paul was suddenly by Jared's side, dragging him out of the school gym while Brad was left lying on the gym floor passed out.

Someone called an ambulance and it hadn't been Kim. She'd stood there in shock with Samantha by her side until the ambulance came. The two girls jumped into Samantha's car and followed the ambulance to the hospital in Forks, since their parents were not among those that had stopped using the hospital once the strange, young Dr. Cullen had started working there.

Kim and Samantha sat there by his hospital bed, even after Dr. Cullen told them that "he would be fine" and that "broken jaws are a common fracture" as if that was supposed to make them feel better. What he did not tell them, but he did tell Brad and his mom when he woke up, was that "whoever broke this boy's jaw probably has a broken hand." As it turned out, Jared's hand had not even bruised.

Samantha and Kim drove home in Samantha's car, and Samantha told Kim matter-of-factly that "your boyfriend is a psycho."

Kim had refused to talk to Jared for three days.

The first day had been easy because it was Saturday, and Kim did not have to go anywhere anyway. She locked her bedroom door and told her parents she was feeling sick. Then she closed her window, lowered the blinds, turned off the lights, and refused to answer the phone.

Jared had called her thirty times before she had shut off her cell phone and afterwards he had come to her house, only leaving when her mom assured him that "Kimmy is upstairs and not feeling well."

The second day had been harder. Even though it was Sunday, she was feeling restless stuck in her bedroom. She had texted Brad, and messaged him that "no, she wasn't seeing Jared anymore" to which he was extraordinarily happy. She memorized all of the U.S. presidents forwards and backwards with and without their years in office, and then she proceeded to memorize their party affiliations. That took her four hours, but once she was certain she would pass her U.S. History quiz, she moved on. She finished her chemistry homework, read three extra chapters of her English book, and done extra credit math problems.

That was when the howling had started. It was quiet enough that Kim knew it was nowhere near her, but there was something so miserable about the howl that she still felt the need to put on headphones, cranking the sound loud enough to block out any thought.

Avoiding Jared on Monday at school had been like avoiding the Black Death in 14th century Florence. Kim was forced to "borrow" Samantha's locker and spend passing periods in the girl's bathroom, only to realize that if she didn't go to history she would probably be written up for skipping. So Kim had held her breath and walked in the room, prepared to ignore him until she could think of the right way to tell the boy she'd spent a year and a half being in love with that she never wanted to see him again.

It ended up not being needed because Jared was absent.

Someone whispered that he'd been arrested, but that someone received a death glare from Paul and shut up instantly. Kim managed to pass her history quiz, and she was halfway out the door when Paul stopped her.

"We need to talk, Connweller."

Kim went with him because he was bigger than she was.

"What is it?" She shied away from telling him that if he didn't hurry she would be late for Chemistry.

"You need to talk to Jared."

She almost refused. Almost told Paul that if Jared wanted to talk to her so much then he shouldn't have punched her best friend, because that was _not_ what normal people did, and that wasn't what guys did when they wanted a girlfriend.

"I have to go to Chemistry," she said instead, because Kim was not the assertive type. "I'll call him," she added when he didn't let her pass.

Kim had called him on Tuesday and he'd managed to convince her to meet with him, and from there he'd told her _everything_. He'd told her about being a werewolf and promised her it wasn't like in the movies. He'd explained the pack to her, and why he missed school sometimes. The vampires were the only part that scared her; especially the way he described them. Of course, he saved the role she played for last, and Kim was not exactly sure about how she should interpret it. A part of her only caught the part that he _loved _her, but the logical part of her mind started thinking of sex pheromones long enough for her to conclude that there was something in her genes that would make for strong wolf offspring, and that disturbed her more than flattered her. She did not tell him that though and listened to him tell her that he _needed _ to be around her and after the first two days he wasn't sure he would be able to control his phasing, so Sam forced him to stay home on the third.

When Kim let Jared walk her to her locker on Wednesday, Brad stopped talking to her permanently. So maybe the whole thing had been her fault. But just like Jared, she had not really had a choice either. To not accept his imprint would have been cruel, heartless. She would have been going against nature itself, or at least that was how she interpreted it. So when he'd asked her to go out with him she'd had no choice but to say yes, and lost Brad in the process because he couldn't know. The secret of the La Push shape-shifters was just that, a secret. So Brad was left to believe she had given up his friendship for a boy she'd been shamelessly crushing on for a year in a half.

Kim adjusted in her seat on the sofa, and leaned her head back on the cushion.

Samantha was right, though. She was leaving in the summer. This might be her last chance to make it up to Brad and, really, talking to her ex-best friend couldn't be any harder than telling her boyfriend with attachment issues that she was going away for at least three months.

"Do you think he'd talk to me, Samantha? I mean, it's kinda been a while."

"You never tried to talk to him, Kim," Samantha pointed out. "He stopped talking to you and the next day it seems you were all cuddly with Jared Cameron and _his_ friends." There was definitely some spite in her voice.

"You think he hates me?"

"Nah," Samantha answered anyway. "You were stupid though." She turned off the television and flipped her legs over the back of the sofa. "I've got an idea!" A smile suddenly broke across her face. "We should go to Port Angeles. Catch a _real _movie. Get something to eat. Have fun!"

Kim didn't answer.

"What? Is Jared going to ground you if you go out?" Samantha teased.

"No! He's not my father…it's not his business what I do!" But she had promised him she'd be at Samantha's the entire night. If she broke her side of the bargain, it would be fair game for him to break his. Still, he didn't own her. He couldn't tell her what to do. "Let's go."

Samantha smiled. "All righty then, let's go."

Kim stared over her shoulder until La Push shrunk in the distance.


	3. Samantha's Clunker

**Chapter Three: Samantha's Clunker**

* * *

The girls arrived in Port Angeles with the setting sun. The arrival also signified an end to Samantha's constant cursing. Samantha made no secret of the fact that she hated her 1980 Datsun – which she had received as a gift from her uncle three years prior- but, as far as Kim was concerned, she was treating the poor car with unneeded cruelty. It had chugged all the way to Port Angeles sputtering gas and leaking oil, after all. Kim kept that thought to herself as Samantha slammed her first into the steering wheel for the final time before turning off the ignition in front of the movie theater.

"I think," Kim smirked, "I think you hurt its feelings."

"It's a piece of junk!" Samantha turned the key to lock the door and muttered about "automatic locks" until they made it to the ticket counter.

The movie was a poorly acted romantic comedy about an amnesiac that falls in love with her therapist. After the first forty-five minutes, Kim stopped paying attention to the screen and instead her mind drifted to the question of how she was supposed to tell Jared that she would be leaving La Push.

When she'd first gotten her acceptance, Kim had not even considered what her going away would mean for Jared. Once she'd started to think about it, the optimist in her imagined him being happy with her. He would kiss her and tell her how intelligent she was and that he'd miss her, but if this was what she wanted than he wanted it too. The problem was that shortly after Kim the optimist developed her scenario, Kim the pessimist had come up with one where Jared, the wolf, followed her wherever she went, howling.

Kim focused her eyes on the screen long enough for her to see the final kiss and then the credits. Kim determined she would talk to Emily tomorrow. Emily would know what to do, she _always _knew what to do.

"Kimmy!" Samantha shook her until Kim stumbled to her feet "I'm starving and that movie was awful. I can't believe Heather recommended it. Everyone knew that they'd get together in the end, so what's the mystery? I'll tell you; there wasn't one!"

Samantha looked flustered as she pushed open the door. "So, there's this place to eat that's only a few blocks over," Samantha continued. "So we can walk."

Kim knew Samantha was just trying to avoid getting back into her car, but Kim still stared warily at the blackening sky suddenly filled with a sense of dread. She pushed it away, reminding herself that 'you can't let Jared get to you...you're perfectly safe' and went after Samantha.

The restaurant Samantha chose was a small Italian place. Personally, Kim would have preferred McDonalds, but she took the seat on the lighted balcony without a complaint and held the menu in front of her face until she heard footsteps. Kim lowered her menu thinking it was their server. She was fully prepared to tell him that she wanted water when she paused.

This man was not a server. He wore a white t-shirt, a dark jacket, and blue jeans that barely covered designer shoes. That was not what caught Kim's attention, however.

The man was inhumanely beautiful. He reminded her of one of the Roman statues with his pale, chiseled muscles and his giant stature. His jaw was perfectly formed and dark brown curls brushed his temples.

He smiled, and Kim could not help but smile back.

The man took Kim's hand, and although his mouth was moving she was unable to make sense of anything he was saying due to the fact that she was suddenly overwhelmed with how cold his hand was. When he pulled his hand away, Kim noticed that just as the wind blew across her hair his nose crinkled as if he was disgusted by something, but he quickly readjusted his features and turned to Samantha with an even more vibrant smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

Samantha giggled. Samantha never giggled. She shrieked frequently and she gushed constantly, but she _never_ giggled.

"I…I'm Samantha."

"It's nice to meet you, Samantha." Instantly, a piece of paper appeared in his hand, though Kim had never seen him reach that hand into his pocket. He handed the paper to Kim's best friend. "Call me."

Then he was gone. It was as if he had vanished into thin air. The only hint that he had been there was the blush on Samantha's face and the piece of paper in her hand.

"You're not _actually _going to call him, are you?"

Kim was pretty sure that it was pointless to ask the question. Samantha was definitely planning on calling him even if he had hands as cold as death and a way of disappearing into thin air.

"Are you insane, Kimmy?! Of course I'm going to call him. Did you see him, he was…gorgeous! It was like I was looking at…well someone _hot_!" Samantha paused. "Ryan Gosling."

"What?"

"It was like I was looking at Ryan Gosling! He was just _that _gorgeous."

Kim bit her lower lip to stop from laughing, and then leaned back in her chair. "He looks nothing like Ryan Gosling."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "I know that. I'm just saying he was attractive, and so is Ryan Gosling."

Thankfully, the server appeared then and Kim ordered her water while Samantha opted for a coke. While Samantha proceeded to order her food, Kim could not take her mind away from how strange the whole thing had been. His skin had been so cold it had felt like electric shocks through her body, but either Samantha had not noticed or she had been too entranced with his looks to care. Maybe he was anemic. It was a possibility. Didn't anemic people have cold hands? And Kim was around shape-shifters a lot more than Samantha. She was used to people being hot – as in running the kind of permanent fever that would kill an average human– so the cold would have affected her more. It was the only logical explanation.

"Do you even know his name?" Kim regained her train of thought. "I mean…this random guy just gave you his phone number. Don't you think that that is a _little _creepy, Samantha?"

"You're telling me about creepy, Kimmy." Samantha looked shocked. "Your boyfriend is a psychopath."

"He's not a psychopath, Samantha. According to the DSM-"

"Kimmy, you know what I mean." Samantha accepted her coke from the server and took a dignified sip from the straw. "He has serious anger management issues."

"That doesn't make him a psychopath," Kim argued. "All I mean is…what's his first name?"

Samantha looked at the piece of paper. "His name is...all right he didn't write it down, but that's why I have to call. I need to know what his name is."

Kim threw up her hands in defeat. "Fine, you win. Call him, Samantha, but don't do anything stupid."

"Like go out with the guy who broke your best friend's jaw?" Samantha winked.

Kim decided she would stop trying to give her best friend advice on dating. Samantha had made her point. Of course, the situation was slightly different.

It was ten o' clock when the girls finally paid their bills and walked back to Samantha's car. The sky was onyx, and the car's yellow headlights did little to alleviate the darkness. The car sputtered down the street and Samantha coaxed it – with much cursing – onto the highway before it started to give out. Samantha barely managed to get the car to the shoulder of the road before it gave out completely. She slammed her palm into the hazard lights, pulled the emergency brake, and leaned her head against the head rest.

"I told you this car was crap, Kimmy."

"You mean…"

Samantha nodded before Kim could finish, and the only thought that Kim managed to come up with was 'I'm dead.' There was the obvious problem of course. They were stuck in the middle of the road and, as far as Kim knew, Samantha did not have Triple A. There was the fact that both of Kim's parents would probably gleefully murder her if she called them and told them that she'd missed her curfew and left Samantha's house without telling Samantha's mom, and then there was Jared. She'd promised him that she would be at Samantha's house the _entire _night. Of course, Jared couldn't ground her, unlike her parents.

"I'll call a tow truck," Samantha decided. "Yeah…I'll call a tow truck."

"I'll call Jared." Kim met Samantha's glare. "Well, we have to get home, don't we?"

"Fine," Samantha grumbled. "Call your boyfriend, but don't expect me to be nice to him."

"Course not."

Kim took a deep breath before she dialed the number and pressed the phone against her ear. She waited for the phone to go to voicemail, but her patience was not needed. He answered on the second ring.

"You change your mind?" He sounded happy.

"Hey, Jared." Kim could sense the nervousness in her voice and tried to suppress it. "What are you doing right now?"

"Nothing important, Kim…just crushing Embry at video games!" Someone said something in the background, and it was followed by Jared's muffled statement of, "You're not more important than her…watch your – aww…crap…there goes your head! ... Sorry, Kim, what's up?"

Kim turned to Samantha who was arguing with the towing company, and then sighed again. "Can you come pick me up?"

"From Samantha's? Sure, Kim…if that's what you want."

"I'm not at Samantha's." She waited

_Five-four-three-two-one…_

"Where are you, Kim!" It sunk in. "Are you all right? Did something happen? Why did you leave Samantha's house? Why aren't you answering me?!"

"You haven't given me a chance. I'm fine. I'm with Samantha. We went to Port Angeles, but her car broke down, and we're waiting for a tow truck…"

The line went dead. Perfect. Kim was almost positive he had just phased. She wondered if he realized that Samantha would not be impressed if a giant wolf suddenly showed up in front of their car. In fact, Kim was pretty sure that Samantha would be somewhere between terrified and disturbed.

"I…think he's coming," Kim finally decided to say because he was coming. The question was in the form.

"The tow truck should be here in two hours." Samantha's voice was a half-step below aggravated. "But, hey…at least we get to have quality time."

For an answer, Kim frowned. She was too concerned about how much control Jared had at the current moment. Of course, Embry had been with him. Maybe the other boy had been able to calm him down. This had been a bad idea, she knew that now. Or she knew it because Samantha's car had not been able to make the trip. Something told Kim that if they'd made it home she would not be regretting any of it.

"You're worried about your boyfriend, aren't you?" Samantha spoke up. "He did tell you not to go out, didn't he?" Samantha sighed. "You know, Kim you have to be your own person. I mean…honestly. We screwed up…_I_ screwed up," she corrected. "But we're going to get out of this, and Jared is just going to have to suck it."

Kim chuckled. "You're going to be the death of me, Samantha."

Jared's car pulled up a moment later. His high beams scalded Kim's eyes, and when he jumped out of the car and started across the street she was suddenly glad the road was deserted.

Samantha pushed her door open first, and Kim followed suit.

"Hey, Jared," Kim greeted.

"What were you thinking?" He sounded panicked, not angry. That was preferable. "You could have gotten killed. What would I have done if something happened to you?"

"Lay off her, Jared." Samantha's voice was bored, but Kim knew there was fire behind her eyes. "She's eighteen. She can do what she wants."

Kim's eyes flashed to Jared and she noticed the slight tremor in his body. No, this was not the time. There was no way she was going to let him attack Samantha. Kim took his hand and pulled him away from Samantha and her car.

"I'm sorry, all right. I shouldn't have broken my promise."

"You could've-"

"I'm fine, Jared." Kim interrupted him. "But I have to wait here with Samantha for the tow truck, so –"

"I'll stay with you."

And he did. In spite of Samantha's protests, he waited with his hand in Kim's until the truck came to take away Samantha's pathetic excuse for a car. Afterwards, the three of them climbed into Jared's car, and he drove to Samantha's house where Kim's friend climbed out.

"Coming, Kimmy?" Samantha attempted a smile in Jared's presence. It fell flat.

"No, she's coming with me."

"Jared," Kim started to argue.

He didn't answer. His nose twitched and he took a strand of her hair and sniffed it. "You're coming with me," he repeated.

Something in Jared's voice stopped her from trying to argue with him again, and instead she leaned out of the car window.

"I'll see you, Samantha."

The car pulled away before she realized that she'd left all of her stuff at Samantha's house. She did manage to see her best friend mouth "psychopath" though.

"I can smell it on you." He said when the car started on the road. "It's faint, but –"

"What are you talking about, Jared?" Kim's voice came out as an exasperated sigh.

"I can smell a bloodsucker on you."

"That's ridiculous."

"And, I smelled it around Samantha's house too. It was overpowering."

"You think that there's a vampire in Samantha's house?" she was annoyed now. "You're ridiculous."

"I smelled it."

"Well then, maybe you should get your nose checked! Because if there is, and you left her there-"

"I'm just looking out for you."

Kim turned away from him and stared out the window for the remainder of the ride. When the car pulled up to her house she opened her door before he could get to the other side and stomped towards the door. Unfortunately, the door was locked and Jared was behind her before she managed to get her key in the door.

"Kim?"

She dug in her pocket and then remembered that her house key was with the rest of her stuff, at Samantha's house.

"I don't have my key."

"What?"

"I don't have my key!" She raked her fingers through her hair, and all of the days frustrations suddenly came out in tears. "I left my key at Samantha's, Jared!"

"All right," he turned her around and brushed her hair out of her face. "All right." He reached under the door mat and pulled out a key which he handed to her. "Don't cry, Kim."

Kim could see the pain etched onto his face, so she turned away from him and fumbled with the key until the door opened.

The house was dark, but Kim's dad's car was not in the driveway so she knew he was not home yet. It was just her mom and Austin, and they were both asleep.

"Kim?" Jared tried again.

"Go make sure Samantha's okay." She closed the door and bolted it before he could say anything else.

It didn't matter. He was in her bedroom before she even got there, and Kim remembered that she'd left her window open.

"Kim, I'm sorry I upset you, but you could have gotten hurt." He encircled her with his arms and Kim suddenly had this morbid image of being trapped. "What would I have done if you had gotten hurt, Kim? I can't survive without you."

She wanted to tell him that he was going to have to. She wanted to tell him that come August she was going to Georgetown, but she stopped herself. Kim had to talk to Emily first before she announced it out of anger.

Kim brushed away her tears and kissed his cheek. "Make sure Samantha's okay," she repeated.

This time, he obeyed.

When he was gone, she closed the window.


	4. Emily's Big Surprise

**Chapter Four: Emily's Big Surprise**

* * *

Kim woke up with a headache – one of those 'I cried myself to sleep-lay at a weird angle-didn't wake up until after twelve' headaches. Her bedroom looked like a water-color image with its blurred edges and bleeding colors. She wiped the moisture from her eyes and climbed out of her bed, only to lament the fact that her headache had expanded to an ache in her neck and her shoulders.

The mirror did nothing to make her feel better. As she stared into it, Kim realized that the whites of her eyes were red, the flesh around was puffy, and her eyelashes were matted. She suddenly had the urge to throw something at the mirror, but she was superstitious enough not to try and risk seven years of bad luck.

"Calm down," she coaxed herself.

Kim checked the clock and pinched the bridge of her nose when she realized it read one thirty. There was no time to go through her daily activities and get to Emily's by two. She considered being late or not going at all, but Kim had said she'd be there at two, and disappointing Emily was not something Kim enjoyed no matter how tired she was. Kim would just have to skip breakfast, or lunch.

The quick shower lessened the pain, but it still took eye drops, a mascara comb, and foundation for Kim to feel she looked presentable. She raked a brush through her hair until all the tangles from the braid were gone leaving her black hair flat against her face. One t-shirt and pair of jeans later, she was as ready as she'd ever be to leave.

"Kimmy, did you come in last night?" Kim's mother stopped her on the way down the stairs.

"Uhh…yeah…I umm…decided not to stay the night at Samantha's." Kim stumbled over the words. "Can I borrow the car?"

She'd been planning on simply taking the car, but now that her mother had intercepted her she doubted that _taking _the car would work out as well as she had planned for it to.

"I guess, Kimmy, but Austin has a baseball game at six, so I need it back by at least five-thirty."

"Sure thing, Mom." Kim grabbed the keys off the counter.

"Kim," her mom started again. "Have you told Jared about-"

"-I'll tell him today," Kim cut her mother off. "I promise."

She ignored the woman's sigh and rushed out the door and into the car.

Kim arrived at Emily's house three minutes after two o' clock, and was not the least bit surprised to find the majority of the people already there. When Emily had her 'things', people came on time, and not only because if they didn't all the food would be gone. People came on time because they liked Emily, and they wanted to please her. Kim was one of those people, and her like of Emily was the only reason she had agreed to be a bridesmaid in the woman's wedding at the end of July.

Still, not even her like of Emily drove Kim to get out of her mom's car. Her neck still hurt, and when she glanced out of the window and saw Jared's parents she was suddenly angry with them for having such an insufferable son.

"Hey, Kim." The sound of her name was followed by a tap on the glass, and Kim cranked down the window to acknowledge Embry. "Are you just going to stay in there?"

"No." Kim made no motion that she was about to move though.

"Y'know, Kim, Jared was worried about you." Embry leaned his arms on the windowsill and ducked his head in the car.

"I'm three minutes late!"

"I meant because you locked him out." Embry seemed unfazed by her outburst.

"I always lock him out." It wasn't really a lie. Kim did lock Jared out of her house whenever she remembered to close the window. "I still live with my parents, and they don't take kindly to overnight guests."

"You're mad at him!" Embry's mouth fell open in shock, and then he started to laugh. With all of his weight pressed against her mother's car, his laughter caused the car frame to shake. "I…" he struggled for the words. "I can't believe you're mad at him!"

"I'm not _mad_, Embry."

"It…it's just hilarious." He wasn't listening to her. "I mean you and Jared…Jared and you…you guys are the one couple that well…that's perfect together! I mean…you guys genuinely _like _one another, you know? Think about it, Kim; Jake and Nessie, Quil and Claire, Sam and Emily, even Rachel and Paul are screwed up in some way, but you and Jared…well you guys are perfect for each other. You're the match that could've happened, and last year you guys were the _perfect _couple. So," he paused, "excuse me if I'm a little shocked."

Kim shoved open the door and was slightly disappointed when the force of the metal against his body did not seem to affect him. "People fight, Embry." Kim climbed out of the car and slammed it closed. "It's normal."

"So you _are _mad at him." Embry grinned in victory. He put his arm around her shoulders as she started to walk towards the house. "Now…this could be interesting."

"Will you shut-up?!" Kim spun on him, and a moment later the door flew open. Thankfully, it was Emily standing in the doorway and not Jared. Kim was not sure she really wanted to face him right now. She wasn't angry, Embry was wrong, but she was still annoyed with the way Jared had acted the night before even if most of it had been her own fault. That was assuming he was right about the fact that she shouldn't have left Samantha's house.

"There you are, Kim." Emily smiled. "We were starting to get worried."

_I was three minutes late! _She kept the thought in her head. It wasn't Emily's fault that she was on edge. The blame for that belonged to Jared, the headache she had woken up with, and Embry Call.

"Sorry." Kim offered a half smile. "I…had a hard morning."

"I just meant with Embry holding you up in your car," she clarified.

Kim suddenly remembered why she liked Emily so much.

Ignoring Jared, once she got inside, was not difficult. It was impossible. There was the obvious issue that he interpreted her showing up at the gathering as assurance that she understood that he had been right, but there was also the issue of Emily's house being so tiny. It meant that people shuffled off into corners, and that somehow that translated into a scrimmage football game in Emily's backyard Black Pack against Uley Pack; just fun competition without proper padding, but including NFL style tacking. Of course, injury wasn't really an issue for them.

Kim, by default, was pushed out there with them in sort of the same way she'd been pushed to 'play in the sandbox with Paul' when they were both three because they were both three. They'd gotten in a sand fight, and she'd ended up with sand in her eyes.

It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Kim hated football, and sand, and, to an extent, she hated Paul who'd only started being nice to her when she'd begun to date Jared, so she took a seat beside Claire.

"Braid, Kimby. Braid!"

It was Claire's favorite pastime between the two of them, and since Claire was three and therefore naturally likeable and shamelessly adorable; Kim complied.

Beneath her fingers, Claire's glossy locks began to transform into a mass of braids that someone would have to suffer through taking them out later unless they fell out on their own, but Kim wasn't paying attention. Her focus was on the strands of hair beneath her fingers. For that reason, she didn't notice that the game was over until she felt Jared's arms around her waist and smelled sweaty teenage boy on her skin.

"Go away, Jar-ed." Claire stumbled out the word. "Braid, Kimby. Braid!" she demanded.

Kim felt Jared's chin on her shoulder, and she almost told him to stay away from her until he took a shower, but he started talking before she could.

"You look really pretty, Claire." He smiled at the three year old and Claire forgot her previous wishes. Instead, she gave a dimpled smile back, and a slight blush entered her cheeks.

"Thank you." She paused between the two words to wrap her tongue around the feel of the 'y' and then smiled again when she got it right.

That was when Kim's phone started to buzz.

Assured that it was her mom changing her mind about the car, Kim excused herself from Jared and Claire and wandered away from the crowd.

"Hey, Kimmy, guess what?"

It was Samantha.

"Hi, Samantha."

Kim wasn't sure how to start the conversation. In her mind, she was the one to call Samantha and apologize, but then she'd forgotten how fast her best friend could bounce back. In fact, her tone of voice showed no anger at the previous night's events. Kim took that as a good sign.

"Guess!" she insisted again.

"I don't know."

"Gosh, Kim, you're so _boring_," Samantha sighed. "All right, so I called the guy we met last night at the restaurant. He's twenty-one, he's from out of town, and he wants to meet me for a late lunch. Isn't that exciting, Kim?!"

"What's his name?"

"You know, I completely forgot to ask." The way Samantha said it implied that she regarded the man's name about as important as she regarded his shoe size. That was not promising. "But don't worry, Kimmy. I'll definitely ask him tonight. I don't what to wear though. What should I wear? I don't want to wear anything too slutty because then he might get the wrong idea, but at the same time I don't want to go in there dressed liked Anne of Green Gables, y'know?"

Kim did not answer as she tried to process what her friend had just told her. For some reason, meeting a strange man for lunch did not seem like a good idea to Kim, but she was sure that Samantha did not want her input about anything except what to wear.

Kim gave it anyway.

"Maybe you should bring someone with you, Samantha," Kim suggested. "Why don't you see if Brad will come with you to meet this mysterious stranger?"

"Why would I do that?" Samantha's voice was aghast over the line. "If I bring Brad he'll get the wrong idea."

"Which he?" Kim's fingers went for her hair, but she stopped them and instead clenched her fist by her side. "See, this is the problem with ambiguous pronouns. At least give your mystery guy a name. What about John," she suggested.

"No…eww…" There was genuine disgust on the other line. "We'll call him Dave."

"Okay, whatever…Dave. I think that you shouldn't go meet Dave by yourself. You should bring someone. Remember 'stranger danger' Samantha?"

"I'm not a child, Kim."

It was clear Samantha had no intention of following Kim's advice no matter how sound it might be. She was going to meet a strange man probably in some ridiculously faraway place like Seattle, and then call Kim at two in the morning because things didn't go 'as planned' and he – 'Dave' – left her in a motel all alone. All right, maybe Kim was being dramatic, but what was the point of chancing it?

"Well, be safe, Samantha."

"No, good luck…no congrats…"

"Just be safe."

Kim hung up before she could say something that wasn't exactly friendly to her best friend. Stuffing her phone in her pocket, Kim started back towards the people with a clear goal of finding Emily. She had determined that she was going to talk to Emily about Georgetown after all, and now might be her only chance.

Kim weaved her way through the backyard, and when she was almost to the house she had to stop to say hello to Jared's mom and promise she would come over soon before she finally managed to get to Emily.

The situation was not ideal.

It seemed the entirety of both packs had congregated in one area with Emily in the middle. The council members were also there, though they hung out in the fringes of the group. In short, the inside of Emily's house had suddenly become a claustrophobic atmosphere. It seemed that in the time it had taken Kim to migrate everyone from outside had made their way into Emily's living room.

There was no way she'd be able to get to her.

As Kim contemplated going outside and calling back Samantha, or making a run back to her car while she came up with a new attack plan, Jared noticed her.

He was to her side in a moment.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine." Kim even forced a smile. "Samantha called," she explained although she wasn't sure why. He would probably be more interested in her future plans than her risk-taking best friend. "She met a guy, and she's meeting him for dinner."

"What's wrong with that, Kim?" He brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"She doesn't know his name. She doesn't know anything about him actually…never mind…don't worry about it."

"I can go check on her if you're worried," he offered.

His eyes held that conflicted feeling that she'd learned to read so well. They showed that he didn't want to go, but he wanted to please her.

"I'm not worried." Kim made a show of smiling wider this time so that he would believe her. "I'm just annoyed."

He nodded as if he was considering something.

"Can I ask you something, Kim?"

"May you?" she corrected.

"What?"

"You asked if you could. I'm sure you're physically and mentally capable of asking me, so you're actually asking permission so you should have said 'may I'."

He laughed. It was controlled laughter as if he was afraid she might get embarrassed. "I love you, Kim."

He kissed her in the middle of Emily's claustrophobic living room, and Kim only had a moment to consider what made her correcting his grammar as warranting a kiss before she was lost in it.

It may have been simplistic and even primitive, but when Jared Cameron kissed her she ceased to have a single coherent thought and forgot that she was supposed to be angry with him for something that had happened the night before. All she remembered was that this was the boy who loved her and would do anything for her, and that she loved him too. She had loved him since he saved her life in sophomore year, and she would love him regardless of the fact that he was a psychopathic, overprotective, aggressive, needy shape-shifter with attachment issues.

When he finally pulled away from her, Kim noticed that the entire living room was staring at her. She blushed scarlet and then noticed that it was not because he kissed her. It was because in the middle of Emily's living room, surrounded by what now seemed like one million people, Jared had knelt on the ground before her.

Her stomach felt tight and she was sure her heart stopped beating while at the same time she could hear it thundering in her ears. It was so loud that she didn't hear anything he said until he pulled out a velvet box and held a diamond ring in front of her.

"Will you marry me, Kimberly Connweller?"

Kim stood frozen in shock. Her voice failed her, and her mind blanked. She was suddenly back in third quarter of junior year, and it was like Jared was asking her to Junior Prom all over again. The problem was that he wasn't asking her about Junior Prom; he was asking her about eternity, or at least 'till death do us part.'

She opened her mouth and nothing came out except a cracking sound that was too embarrassing to focus on.

She looked into the crowd, but every person was waiting for her to say that one word that they were all sure was just waiting on her tongue.

She turned back to Jared. He still looked hopeful as he waited for her to answer him with unnatural patience.

She stared at the box, and the diamond ring sparkled in the light.

'I'll tell him today.' Kim remembered telling her mom. 'I promise.'

Now she understood why her mother had been so desperate for Kim to spill the secret. She'd suspected something like this was going to happen even if she tried to pretend that Kim and Jared weren't forever. The more she thought about it, Kim realized why Jared had been so excited when she had revealed that she was coming to Emily's 'thing'. It explained why his parents had come, and why the entire party had migrated into the living room.

They were all waiting for this moment.

They were waiting for Kim to say 'yes' and secure another match that had been decided by fate.

"Jared." Kim was not sure where her voice came from, but it was there. It seemed that when she spoke the word, the entire world held its breath. "Jared, I'm going to Georgetown in August. It's a really good university on the other side of the country. I mean it's in the capitol. My parents already paid the deposit, and my dad's been working extra hours to help pay for my first year. I'm going to get job when I get there, and I'll only be back in December if I have enough left over for a plane ticket. Otherwise, I'll be gone until next summer."

Once the words were out of her mouth she suddenly realized their magnitude for the first time. They held a tremendous weight as they drifted across the room, and as they hit the spectators there were little gasps and disappointed frowns.

It was Emily who saved her, again.

"Congratulations, Kim. That's a really big accomplishment." Emily smiled, but Kim could not tell if it was genuine or if she was just trying to coach everyone else in the room.

Either way, it did not have the desired effect, but they did clear out as if sensing a change in atmosphere.

When everyone had gone, Jared intertwined his fingers with hers, as if she was his anchor.

"Don't go," he begged. "Kim, I don't know what I'm going to do if you're not here. I can barely manage a day; I don't even know if months are a possibility."

"Jared," she turned to him. "Jared, I really want this. It's more than just some stupid school. It's a school that I've worked towards for four years! I want this more than –"

"-anything," he finished. There was clear hurt in his eyes.

"Well maybe not anything." She attempted to soften the blow. "But this really important to me. Do you understand that?"

"Yeah," his voice cracked, and a feeling of guilt overwhelmed her. "I mean…if it's what you want then…I want it too. I'll come with you," he volunteered. "We'll both go to D.C. I just have to –"

"-Jared," she stopped him.

Looking at him she was positive that he was telling the truth. He would travel to the end of the world if it was what she wanted, but it wasn't what she wanted. She wanted him to be happy, and he was happy in La Push.

_He's not happy without you._

She pushed the thought away. She wasn't being cruel. She just wanted to go away to college. That wasn't cruel. Was it?

"Jared, I don't want you to come with me. I want you to stay here. You're happy here, and I'm not going to take you away from the pack."

"I can't be without you, Kim." His hands wrapped around her shoulders. "I can't be happy without you near me."

Her guilt turned to a pure loathing of herself at his misery, but she was stuck on her decision. She wouldn't change her mind because she felt guilty. Besides, it wasn't fair of him to make her feel guilty. It was a weak rationalization, but she stuck to it.

"Well you're going to have to be, Jared." She looked away from him before she could grab back her words, and then she marched out of Emily's house and climbed into her mom's car, locking the doors and turning on the ignition the moment she saw Sam Uley coming towards her.

She was speeding away five seconds later.

* * *

**A/N: I know I said I wasn't going to leave one, so I'll make it short. Just for a count: if you're reading leave a review, favorite, alert, or send me a PM. Thanks :)**


	5. Waiting for Samantha

**Chapter Five: Waiting for Samantha**

* * *

_Kimberly Cameron._

Kim stared at the signature she had scribbled in her diary sophomore year back when she'd still hearted her _I_ as she wrote. The name itself wasn't so obsessive, but Kim knew better. That name was scribbled on each page, and it was sometimes followed by a lament as to why Jared Cameron never noticed her.

It was more than obsessive; it was downright embarrassing.

Kim remembered how, not long after Jared had told her his secret, she'd relinquished hers. Kim had pulled out her sophomore and early junior year diaries and showed them too him blushing the entire time, but he hadn't laughed at her.

Jared had kissed her and told her "one day" with all the assurance that they had forever.

Today had been that day.

That was the only thing Kim had been thinking for hours. Now that the anger had abated, the full extent of the guilt had settled, and Kim realized that what she'd felt before was only a taste.

Today had been that day.

Jared had offered her what had once been her dream, and she hadn't even had the decency to refuse him. No, instead she'd blurted out her future as proof that she was truly cruel.

In spite of the guilt though, Kim could not bring herself to apologize to Jared. Instead, she continued to flip through her old diary until she came across an entry dated the first quarter of sophomore year on the last day of school before Christmas break. The entry had been done in bright red gel pen with huge loops on almost every letter, but Kim could still decipher it.

"_I think I'll never be this happy again," _it began. "_Ms. Allen, our homeroom teacher, made us do Secret Santa. She's a weirdo normally, and she treats us like we're in fifth grade most of the time, but everyone was really excited about her idea. Anyway, I got Kelsey Chapman which was really easy, but that's not what this is about. You'll never guess who my Secret Santa was?_

_Jared._

_Jared Cameron was my Secret Santa!_

_He bought me a teddy bear! I'm serious; it was a bright blue teddy bear! Samantha said his mom probably picked it out, but I don't care because it's super adorable, and it was from him. In fact, I have it with me right now as I write this, and I'll never get rid of it._

_In other news, mom's throwing a Christmas party on the twenty-third for all of her and dad's professional friends, so I have to babysit Austin. At least I get to go to Samantha's house. Brad will be there too, so we're planning on sitting Austin in front of the television and then crashing in Samantha's room. I can't wait._

_With Love,_

_The Future Kimberly Cameron"_

A tear plopped onto the page, and Kim wiped at her face with unneeded roughness. She clutched her teddy bear to her chest and realized, with marked cynicism, the fact that it was the same one. The same bright blue teddy bear that she'd received as a gift from Jared in sophomore year.

"You're being stupid," she scolded herself. "You're acting like you did something wrong. You're acting like he broke up with you. He _didn't _break up with you, and you didn't break up with him…you just sped away and then locked the window so he couldn't get in, and you didn't do anything wrong. You told the truth. There's nothing wrong with that!"

Her thought process was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.

Suddenly energized, Kim jumped from her bed still clutching her teddy bear, and rushed down the stairs. She was sure it was Jared; it had to be him. He was coming because she'd locked him out of her window, and when she opened the door Kim would apologize to him. She'd say that she was sorry for not telling him earlier, and for leaving him to swallow his proposal, and he would forgive her and everything would be okay again.

Of course, Kim's fantasy was dependent on Jared's willingness to support Kim's Georgetown decision.

Pausing at the door, she sucked in her breath and opened the door.

Samantha's mom was there to greet her. Her eyebrows were pinched, her nose was scrunched, and her face held a worried frown.

"Is she here?"

The woman pushed past Kim.

"Samantha? No, she –"

"She went on a date; I know." The woman waved a dismissive hand. "A lunch date," she emphasized, "but it's nine o' clock."

Kim started to respond. She started to say something about Samantha's date going better than she suspected, but then an odd chill came over her, and Kim suddenly remembered the cold hand of the man in the restaurant and Jared's comment about a "bloodsucker". It was a stupid idea; a really stupid idea, but it didn't matter.

If Kim was right, Samantha was in serious trouble.

The faded blue door looked more menacing in the dark. It didn't matter that once upon a time she had rushed through that door without knocking and spent the rest of the day pretending to do homework. Now though, Kim paused and formulated what she was going to tell Brad; 'Samantha's missing; I think she's in trouble.' That was all she would say. She wouldn't tell him about her twisted vampire hypothesis. Besides, she wasn't sure she wanted to approach the pack with her dilemma. Kim wasn't ready to face any of them, with the exception of Jared, even if vampire-hunting was their job. What if she was wrong? Kim wasn't sure she could stand being mortified in front of them.

No, she would much rather request the aid of her ex-best friend.

Kim knocked.

"Took you long enough, Kimbo, I was fifty percent sure you were going to walk away without actually taking the first big step."

"Hey, Brad."

He smiled and motioned for her to come in as if he'd forgotten about the fact that he'd spent the last year and a half ignoring her.

Kim stayed in her spot.

"Samantha's missing, Brad; I'm worried about her. I think she might be in trouble…" Kim bit her lip to stop herself from saying anymore. She was sure she already sounded paranoid.

"Then there's no time to waste, Kimbo."

His smile did not drop. Brad definitely thought she was paranoid, but then, at least he didn't seem angry with her.

Leaving the door hanging open, Brad disappeared into the house. Kim knew it was a second invitation, an unsaid one, and this time she took it. Kim took the step into Brad's house and the smell of vanilla scented candles rushed into her nose. It hit her now with more ferocity than it ever had in the twelve years Kim had known Brad, and she was overwhelmed with the need to disappear into elementary school where she could sit on the couch with Samantha and Brad, eat peanut butter and jelly, and watch _Hey Arnold! _with the scent of vanilla candles drifting in the background.

"So…" Brad reached for a jacket, "have you tried calling her?"

"Of course, and so has her mom. She even called the police, and they're out looking for her now."

Brad pulled out a chair by the kitchen table and sat in it motioning for Kim to sit as well.

"Knowing Samantha, she probably went for a walk and got lost." He chuckled, but Kim just hoped he was right. "I propose we wait for the professionals, and then if you're still worried in two hours we'll go check the woods. All right?"

Kim considered this. Samantha's mom _had _sent the police to look in Port Angeles for Samantha, and they were professionals at this. Of course, if Kim's hypothesis was right the police would be useless, but then so would she.

"All right, Brad."

Kim took the seat he had offered her, and the two sat in silence.

The silence left a void for Kim to realize how much she missed being with Brad. He'd always been a balance to Samantha's hyperactivity and Kim's shyness, and with him Kim had always felt happy. She'd never had to worry about saying the wrong thing because he'd always understood, and Kim had never felt intimidated by him. Between the three of them there had been the perfect friendship, but between Kim and Brad had been the perfect balance.

"I'm sorry." Kim opened her mouth. "About your face…about never trying to explain…about –"

"Samantha said you're going to Georgetown." Brad cut her off. "That's really great, Kim. I know you've wanted to go there since like seventh grade."

"Fifth," Kim corrected. "And yeah, it's exciting." Her voice fell flat.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Kim stopped. "I mean, it's just…never mind."

"Yeah, it not like we were ever best friends or anything."

"All right," Kim sighed, "Well…Jared doesn't want me to go, and he's being ridiculous about the whole thing! I mean, I like him, but I want Georgetown, and when I told him I was going he was so upset, and I feel guilty about it and all, but this is what I want, and I want him to be happy for me, Brad!" Kim stopped her rant. This was not the time to complain about Jared.

"Jared Cameron is a jerk." Brad's voice held no apology.

"No," Kim disagreed. "It's not that." She found herself defending him. "He's…he's the kind of boyfriend that Samantha and I always used to talk about, and you used to roll your eyes at, but he's too perfect, you know. It's like someone took a fairy tale prince and made him unhealthily attached and annoying jealous."

Brad didn't seem the least bit impressed.

"Do you remember freshman year, Kim, when Ms. Keller made us do a valentines in math class."

"Sure." Kim did not see the relevance.

"Samantha gave hers to Sean since she used to be in love with him, and I gave mine to you, remember?"

"Yeah, of course I do, Brad. We traded valentines."

"You were wearing a pink dress."

"All right, I don't remember that." Kim checked her phone, but there were no messages from Samantha.

"And I wanted to tell you that you were beautiful, and that I liked you…that I'd liked you since seventh grade, but then Samantha came over and announced that Sean was her new boyfriend, and I never had the chance. The next time I got the guts, you told me you were going to Junior Prom with Jared Cameron."

Kim sat at the table for the first time at a loss for words in the presence of Brad. She was sure that anything she attempted to say would be exactly what Brad did not want to hear – if it managed to come out as anything other than a garbled mess.

"I think we should go look for Samantha," she said instead. "I'm really worried about her Brad, and soon it's going to be too late to search in the woods."

"It's already ten o' clock, Kimbo." There was something sad in Brad's expression. "If you're worried about being devoured by a bear you might want to stay here."

"I want to go."

Brad shrugged and walked into his room leaving Kim sitting at the table. Moments later he emerged with two flashlights and a jacket for Kim.

"Let's go."

The blackness of the night was stunning. The glow of the flashlight was only visible for inches before it evaporated into the darkness. Kim hoped that this was not where Samantha was stuck, but then a part of her wished that Samantha had gotten lost in the darkness. It would mean that Kim was wrong about her theory that she wanted to believe was completely ridiculous.

"I'm sure she's okay." Brad didn't speak until they neared the edge of the forest, and Kim realized that he was scared to venture further.

"I shouldn't have let her go." Kim was talking to herself. "I should have done more to stop her. Samantha might be in real trouble now, and if she is then it's my fault."

"No, it's not."

But Brad didn't understand. He couldn't understand because Kim couldn't tell him about vampires, and even if she could there was no reason for him to believe her. Brad lived in the real world, a world where vampires and shape-shifters didn't exist. But in the world Kim had been brought into they did, and they were dangerous. In Kim's world if something happened to Samantha it would be her fault because she hadn't gone to the people she knew could help her friend, or because she hadn't tried hard enough to stop Samantha from going on a date with a complete stranger. In Kim's world, there were things worse than being kidnapped or abandoned in a motel somewhere, and there were things worse than death.

Brad tried again. "In case you haven't noticed, Samantha doesn't really have a gift for listening."

He was right of course, but that didn't make Kim feel any better. Gripping her flashlight, she took a step onto the forest floor checking to make sure that Brad was behind her. In her head, a little voice chimed 'Jared would kill you if he knew you were out here.'

"Thanks, Brad…for coming with me, I mean." Kim's foot snapped a twig. "I've missed you."

"Yeah, Kimbo, me too," Brad agreed.

"And about what you said earlier…" Kim's voice faded out at the sound of footsteps. "Do you hear that?" Kim turned back to Brad.

"I didn't hear anything. Maybe it's in your mind."

It wasn't. Kim knew she'd heard footsteps. She pointed the flashlight again, and sure enough it illuminated the face of Paul Lahote. He lifted his hand in front of his eyes and squinted through the gaps.

"You mind lowering that thing, Connweller?" He did not look surprised to see her.

Kim obeyed.

"Sorry. We were just –"

"-Wandering through the woods in the middle of the night," Paul finished. "Sounds safe."

"We're looking for our friend!" Brad's voice was annoyed. "And it's really none of your business."

Paul smiled, but there was a malicious glint behind his eyes.

"She"- he pointed to Kim- "is my business, though. Does Jared know you're out here?"

"No. I'm just looking for Samantha, Paul. I think she's in trouble."

"We know all about your friend. Why do you think we're out here? This has officially become our business. Now go home, and let the big boys handle it." He smirked.

In the moment before she turned around to leave the forest, Kim understood that Paul was acutely aware of the fact that Samantha's disappearance was tied to the stench of bloodsucker in her house. She also knew that the fact that it was pack business meant that Samantha really was in danger, and Kim's paranoid theory was becoming reality.

"Let's go, Brad." She stopped walking when she realized he wasn't coming. "Come on!"

"No." Brad glared at Paul. "He can't tell us what to do."

"Actually, he can…now let's go."

"I remember you." Paul smiled and took a step forward. "You're the puny little kid that Jared punched last year. How's that jaw treating you?" He laughed, and Brad looked like he was about to try and fight the guy.

"That's not funny, Paul!" Kim grabbed Brad's arm and started to drag him away. "Come on, Brad…we'll just go to my house and see if Samantha mom has heard anything else from the police, all right."

Sending Paul one final glare, she practically dragged Brad away from the woods until he agreed to walk on his own muttering about 'stupid Paul' and 'bastards' and '…think they own the place' all the way back to Kim's house.


	6. Port Angeles

**Chapter Six: Port Angeles**

* * *

The pellets of rain did not seem to care that the bench at the bus stop had no covering. Kim cursed the cold rain as she shuddered beneath the plastic hood of her yellow poncho, and she remembered why she hated buses. It was more than the musty smell and the worn seats; Kim hated bus stops.

Her first time at a bus stop she'd been shoved to the ground by Paul in a "mad rush" to get aboard – there had only been two of them waiting. The bus was of the yellow variety, and Kim blamed it for her arrival to the first day of third grade being one of scratched palms and stinging knees.

It was because of Kim's hate for buses that her mother had driven her to school until the sixth grade when the woman refused to continue, and until the tenth grade Kim had made the walk in rain or shine, even in the snow. Samantha's 1980 Datsun had been her salvation.

_Samantha_. Kim remembered why she was sitting in the rain waiting for a bus in the first place. Samantha had been missing for two days, and so far the pack hadn't managed to find her. Jared had stopped in to see her when he wasn't patrolling or sleeping, and on his last visit he'd made her promise that she would not go looking for Samantha. She'd agreed, and that was all that had been accomplished. Neither Kim nor Jared had said a word about the Georgetown-Proposal impasse, and with these new developments Kim was glad of it.

The bus arrived, creaking to a stop. Kim stood up, and when the door swung open, the burst of air chilled her more than the rain had.

"Port Angeles?" the driver checked.

Kim nodded.

She hadn't been lying to Jared when she'd promised not to go looking for Samantha. She was going to look for a job just like she'd been planning on doing from the beginning, but if she found a clue, Kim would chase it. She owed Samantha that at least.

Kim found a seat near the front and did not turn to see who was sitting beside her until the bus pulled away.

Her companion was an elderly woman. She had spotted skin and curls of white in her hair. Her eyes were blue, and she wore a red sweater that was missing most of its buttons. When Kim turned to her, the woman smiled. "You have such nice skin." The woman started to speak without considering the fact that Kim might not want to speak to her. "I remember when I was young. There were always pimples to worry about, and sunburn…always sunburn, but you have very pretty skin."

"Uhh…thanks." Kim pulled off the poncho and balled up the wet mass as her feet.

Kim fumbled for her phone as an escape, but she did not have a single text, and only one missed call from Jared. His face appeared on her screen, but he hadn't left a voicemail, so whatever he was calling about probably wasn't that important.

"Is that your boyfriend?"

The woman leaned over, and Kim noticed that she smelled like oatmeal.

"Yeah."

"He's very nice looking." The woman took the phone from her. "Bobby was nice-looking too."

"Bobby?" Realizing a lost cause, Kim decided to just be polite and let the woman talk.

"My late husband," she explained, "I met him on the first day of second grade. His family had just moved into the area, but we didn't play together. He didn't like girls."

_That sounds familiar_. Kim didn't say it out loud. It was not the meeting in second grade that reminded her of Jared, but that not liking girl's part. Kim remembered how until fourth grade there had been a clear gender separation amongst the now graduated class of La Push Senior High School. It didn't matter that Kim's mom made her play with Paul whenever Kim's mom went to visit Paul's mom. The moment they entered the schoolyard she became a parasite. As for Jared, her only interaction with him in elementary school had been when he'd pushed her away from the LEGOs and told her that "Girls can't play here."

Brad was the sole exception. He'd endured the ridicule of the other boys by playing with Kim and Samantha in kindergarten, and in return they never touched him so he wouldn't get cooties.

"We started dating in seventh grade."

Kim was brought back into the woman's story.

"How old were you when he proposed?" Curiosity took over.

"Eighteen." The woman gave a tired smile. "We were both eighteen and in love. He was working at this little family-owned grocery store, but he was still poor. My parents knew how much I dreamed about travelling, but I told them that I'd have plenty of time for that. I told them I'd get married, and then we'd travel together. I had everything planned.

"We got married on a Tuesday in June. We both came from old-fashioned families, so we got married in a little church. Before I knew it, I had four kids and seven grandkids, and then Bobby died."

For a moment, Kim could picture this old woman sitting beside her as a beautiful young bride standing beside the love of her life.

"Do you ever regret it?" Her voice was more earnest then she wished for it to be. "I mean…if you could do it again, would you have waited and gone off to travel the world?"

"I've thought about it," the woman admitted. "When my kids were young, Bobby was away at work, and I knew that we didn't have enough money to get David the new shoes he needed…yeah, then I considered how things would have been different, but I don't regret my decision. Even with Bobby gone, I can't imagine what my life would have been like without him."

"Yeah," Kim sighed out the word.

Looking past the woman, she noticed that the bus was pulling up to the bus station.

"You look like a smart girl," the woman said. "You'll do what's right for you."

The doors of the bus opened, and Kim stood up pausing only to grab her poncho before she rushed off the bus.

The sun was just beginning to break through the clouds in Port Angeles. Even though it wasn't raining, the memory of rain was still fresh in the air, and Kim clutched onto her poncho just in-case another downpour began.

As she started towards the strip mall, she did her best to forget what the woman had told her. It was a story that was too close to her heart, and it scared her. After all, Kim's dreams had only ever amounted to two things: go to Georgetown and marry Jared Cameron. Maybe in some _normal _world she could balance both of them. She could go to Georgetown and when she graduated come back and marry Jared. She could go into the School of Medicine and do her residency at the hospital in Forks. In a normal world that would be considered a compromise.

In Kim's world; it was called being selfish.

As far as she was concerned, the only way to please the pack would be for Kim to become another Emily. It was a fate that never seemed to fit in Kim's future. Even though she had not planned every step of her future, she had _some _idea of what she wanted, and Emily's life was not it.

The first stop was a smoothie shop.

The sign on the door read **NOW HIRING**, so Kim pushed opened the door and took a step inside, the jingle announcing her presence. The place was nearly deserted. A watery-eyed teenager was there to take orders, but in the entire shop there was only one customer.

The customer looked up as Kim entered the shop and flashed a smile. It was the nervous smile of someone who was new in town.

He was a scruffy looking teenager with golden brown hair, sideburns, and the makings of a small beard. His eyes were a startling blue and as he held his Styrofoam cup she noticed that he had rather jagged, unhealthy nails.

Kim smiled back and then turned to the boy behind the counter.

"Hello," she smiled at the watery-eyed server.

"How can I help you? We have a special today. You can get two mix-ins for three dollars and fifty cents –"

"-Actually, I-"

"-Or you can get a strawberry banana smoothie for two dollars and seventy five cents –"

"-Saw your sign and –"

"-if you donate five dollars to _Americans for Clean Water_, our sponsored charity, then with your order you will also receive a code which will allow you to possibly get a free smoothie the next time you come."

"-I'm looking for a job!" Kim's voice rose on the final word. "I saw your sign."

"Oh." The boy looked disappointed. "Umm…here." He reached to the side and handed her one of many bright yellow folders that had been sitting on the counter the entire time.

"Thanks."

By the time Kim finished scouring the mall she had four folders, and had been told seven times that the application was online. Finally, she dragged herself to the Italian restaurant that she had come with Samantha to.

Some part of Kim thought that the by standing here she would receive divine inspiration as to Samantha's location, but the other part of her – the logical part – knew that she would only find a restaurant in a midday lull.

Kim walked in anyway, and got a booth in the corner. As she sat sipping a coke, she considered inquiring as to whether or not they restaurant was hiring. That was when she saw it.

It was nothing except a flash of dark brown curls that Kim just barely saw leaving the restaurant, and Kim knew that she was really just being paranoid, but it only took her an instant to find her phone and call Jared.

His phone went straight to voicemail.

Groaning, she dialed Brad.

His phone rang six times before it went to voicemail.

Kim turned to check the door again, but the flash of curly brown hair was gone. Kim was not sure if the urge she was suddenly filled with was founded on a suicide wish, but she threw some money onto the table and rushed out of the door with her folders in hand. Except for a few straggling shoppers, there was no one around, and especially no one who radiated extraordinary beauty and uncomfortable coldness.

A burst of cold air slapped her in the face, but Kim could smell nothing except the bread from inside the restaurant behind her. She could not pick out the "smell of leech", and her self-preservation instinct told her that was probably a good thing.

Kim tried Brad again, and when he didn't answer she decided that now was the time to pay him a visit. He would probably think she was insane, but with Jared on patrol (which was the only reason he wouldn't answer his phone) Kim needed to tell someone, and Brad was the next best option.

The ride back to La Push was uneventful. Kim checked her phone every few minutes, but there were no text messages and no phone calls, so Kim spent the end of the ride with her head lying against the worn seat and staring out the window.

Brad's door was open, that was Kim's first hint that there was something wrong. Brad's mom had never had a problem leaving the door unlocked when they were younger, but it had never hung open.

The sight reminded Kim of being seven years old. Her mother had sat her down and told her that if the door to the house was open, and she knew no one was home, that she should not go inside.

Kim ignored the advice as she took the step into Brad's house, but she did clutch her phone in her hand as a weapon.

The house was eerily silent. Without realizing, Kim found herself tiptoeing towards Brad's room reassuring herself that 'Brad's mom is at work, and Brad's probably asleep. That's why he didn't answer his phone. He must have left the door open.'

When she managed to convince herself of this, Kim ignored the shadows in the walls and the silence, and turned the brass knob of Brad's room door.

When she entered the room, nostalgia took over. She recognized the dent in the wall where Samantha had fallen backwards and her heel had gone through the dry wall, and she saw the faded paint lines on his desk from second grade when Brad, Kim, and Samantha had decided they would re-paint Brad's room.

The reminder of a simpler time was replaced with a feeling of dread moments later, as Kim saw Brad. He was lying on the floor of his room, and his eyes were staring up at her glazed over. His mouth was open in a frantic cry, and his body was frozen.

"Brad!" Kim dropped to the ground and started to shake him. "Brad!"

There was no response. He stayed lying on the ground still staring up, and the longer he lay there the more she shook him even though she knew it would not bring him back.

Her phone started to buzz where she had dropped it on the floor, but she could not make herself move. Salty tears burned their way down her face and she kept shaking him.

"Brad! Brad!"

Her phone continued to buzz, shaking its way across the floor.

"Brad!"

His hands were freezing, and they were tinted an almost blue in shade. As Kim curled hers around his she realized that her fingers were trembling.

Not daring to let her friend go, she reached across her other hand for the phone that continued to buzz.

"B…brad's dead…" Kim did not check to see who it was before she spoke; she knew it was Jared. "H…he's dead…" The phone fell from her ear, and she did not reach back for it. She clutched Brad's frozen hand with both of hers and stayed on the floor with him, tears streaming down her face until Jared and Paul appeared in the doorway.


	7. Concerning Bloodsuckers

**Chapter Seven: Concerning Bloodsuckers**

* * *

Kim sat on Emily's couch with her knees crushed to her chest. She stared at her hands and watched them tremble. Watching them, Kim could force herself to clear her mind of Brad's frozen body and the way Paul's face had looked when he'd told Brad's mother her son had been in an animal attack, and she couldn't see his body just yet. It was much easier for Kim to stare at her shaking hands.

"What I don't understand is how it got through our defenses!"

Sam's voice cut through Kim's bubble. His inflection held more than simply anger; there was fear in his voice.

"The bloodsucker must know the area."

Kim was not sure who said it. She could only think of Brad lying on the ground and Sam saying that he'd been drained of blood by a vampire. The flash of curly brown hair Kim had seen in the restaurant sent a shudder thought her.

She turned back to her still trembling hands.

"Nothing." The door swung open and Jared and Brady returned. Kim did not turn to look at them. "It took off; Brady and I followed the scent all the way to the borders. We passed the word onto Embry; Jake's pack is searching now too, and the Cullen's" – Jared said the word with mild disgust – "They're hunting it too."

"How'd it get past you?" Sam asked the question again, and this time there was clearly placed blame.

"I don't know…maybe it just slipped by without us realizing." By his voice, it was clear that Jared was guessing.

Kim's hands continued to tremble.

"Slipped past you! A boy is dead, and all you can tell me is that the leech slipped past you!"

"Sam, I'm sorry…all right…I'd tell you if I had a better idea; you know I would."

That seemed to end the conversation, at least temporarily, and the next thing Kim knew Jared came to sit next to her on the couch. He took her hands in his own and held them until they stopped trembling. She leaned her head into his chest, unable to form words, and he adjusted his arms so they were wrapped around her.

"You're okay," he whispered it in her ear.

Kim wasn't okay though. She was terrified. It didn't matter that she was safe here in Jared's arms; one of her best friends was missing, the other one was dead, and it was all because of a strange vampire with brown curly hair that for some reason had taken an interest in La Push.

This kind of thing didn't happen, and especially not to Kim. She was the shy, smart girl whose biggest problem was supposed to be getting her crush to like her before graduation, and that was her only problem. Kim was not the kind of girl that had to worry about losing her best friend to a vampire right after she'd made up with him. It wasn't fair.

"So what are we going to do then?" Kim recognized Colin's voice because it still cracked when he talked.

"We're going to go back out there –"

"-After you eat," Emily finished for Sam. "Jake and the Cullen's are out there, so you can eat now."

Her tone left no room for argument, and Sam assented. As for Kim, the thought of eating made her feel sick as she visualized Brad's glassy eyes staring up at her.

"I'm going to take Kim home."

Although Jared was talking to Emily, he stared at Sam as he spoke as if the two were coming to a silent understanding.

"See you tomorrow," Sam finally said.

The ride home began in silence. It wasn't that late, but the sun had started to set on the beach leaving a trail of red across the sky.

"I met him in kindergarten," Kim spoke up. She had never talked to Jared about Brad before. "He was the only boy who would play with girls, remember? You guys used to make fun of him for it." Kim hiccupped back tears. "He saved my life once. We were in the fifth grade and our moms had let us go to the beach alone. I got knocked over by a wave and I was convinced I was drowning. Samantha started to freak out, but Brad sat in the sand and didn't even look up when he yelled 'just stand up, dummy.' It turns out I was taller than the water." Kim managed to smile at the memory.

"This wasn't supposed to happen." Jared pulled into her driveway. "Especially not to you, Kim; I should've kept a closer watch. I don't know how it got past me! I…this is my fault."

"No, it's not," Kim disagreed.

She meant it too. If Brad's fate was anyone's fault it was hers. Kim had been told about vampires; she should have recognized the signs when she'd seen it at the restaurant. Instead, Kim had been too captivated with his beauty, and then too annoyed with Jared to pay attention to what really mattered, and now Brad was dead. "You didn't do anything wrong."

Jared turned off the engine, and Kim pushed open the door.

The lights on the front porch were off, and in spite of the fact that Jared was behind her and he could transform into a giant wolf on a whim, Kim was still nervous entering the house.

The place was deserted and a note lay on the counter written in Kim's mother's preoccupied scrawl.

_Working late. Dad will be home either tonight or early in the morning. Make sure Austin eats dinner and is working on his summer reading list. – Mom_

Kim crushed the paper in her hand and flicked on the house lights.

"Austin!"

The five second wait that followed was accompanied by Kim's pounding heart.

"What?"

A moment later, the twelve year old emerged. His dark hair was messy and his Nintendo DS was in his hands. Staring at him, Kim was sure he'd spent the entire day in his room playing video games. Typical.

"Did you get anything to eat?" She steadied her voice so he wouldn't notice the fact that she was frazzled.

"Pop rocks!" He pulled out an empty bag from his pocket, and held it out with a wide smile.

Kim couldn't figure out if she should be annoyed, humored, or relieved, so she settled for sucking in the tears that were threatening to spill.

"I can make you grilled cheese or spaghetti." Her voice fell flat at Austin's frown.

"What about pizza?" Jared suggested. "I'll pay for it." He squeezed Kim's hand, and she held onto it as though it was the only thing keeping her from slipping.

'_I am like a shipwrecked woman clinging to some wreckage. _'Kim recalled the line from a play they had read in eleventh grade. No one in the class had understood why their English teacher had chosen Henrik Ibsen's famed work, but Kim had been captivated by Ms. Linde no matter how much the protagonist, Nora, bothered her. After all, the woman had given up her happiness to take care of her brothers only to find happiness in the end with the man she'd loved from the beginning. To Kim, it had always been a story to admire but not to emulate. Sacrifice had never been her thing; it was odd to remember it now.

"I like pizza." Austin broke through her thoughts. "Pepperoni…" he started away turning his Nintendo back on.

"Mom says work on your summer reading!"

Austin paused, groaned, and then muttered some lie about losing the list. Kim was not in the mood to argue with him.

When he was gone, she collapsed against the counter as Jared called to order the pizza – his hand never leaving hers.

"What am I supposed to tell them, Jared?" Kim asked the question when she hung up the phone. "I…I can't lie to them."

The tears started again. They fell slimier this time, but Jared didn't notice as he pressed Kim against him, or he just didn't care. He stroked his fingers through her hair and pressed his lips to the top of her head.

"It's going to be all right, Kim," he finally said. "Sam'll take care of it, all right?"

For the second time, Kim found herself unable to speak, so she simply nodded.

Jared stayed even after the pizza came. He chugged Gatorade with Austin, play with the twelve year old at Call of Duty, and cleaned the kitchen when Austin raced up the stairs because Austin suddenly remembered where his summer reading list was.

"You don't have to do this." Kim crushed the pizza box with her forearms. "I mean…we're okay."

Kim had meant it to say that she and Austin were all right for the night. That she wasn't scared anymore, and the two of them would manage until their mom got home. Instead it came out as though she was saying that she and Jared were all right. That no matter what had transpired, she loved him.

"This is what you want, isn't it?" He brushed his fingers through her hair. "And nothing I say is going to change that. Is it?"

He meant Georgetown.

"Jared…there's a vampire loose in La Push, and it's running around killing people. Samantha's missing, and I have no idea if I'm ever going to see her again, and you want to talk about Georgetown?"

"I just don't want to lose you. I can protect you from a vampire, Kim, but there's other ways I can lose you." His voice was adamant. "Your friend, Brad, I never realized how much he meant to you…I mean you never even talked about him, but when I saw you in his bedroom…just sobbing…I realized how close I came to losing you forever back in junior year."

"Jared." Kim pulled his hand from her hair and took it in both of hers. "I do want this, but it doesn't mean that we're finished. I love you, all right. Sure, I've been angry with you, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you. It's just…"

Kim kissed him. She kissed him because she didn't know how to explain to him that she did love him, and she wanted to be his forever, but she was more than just his gravity. She wanted to explain to him that she wanted to – no had to – have her own life because she was only eighteen and knew nothing about the world. Kim kissed him because Brad was dead, and Samantha was gone, and he was all she had left now, and she couldn't lose him.

"I'm sorry." He brushed away the tears that she didn't even realize were falling. "We'll find her, Kim, and I swear to you…I'll never hurt one of your friends again…I swear." His breath was heavy against her face, but she could hear the pain in his voice.

"Just don't leave."

He nodded, and Kim kissed him again because she wanted to thank him, and she had to banish the vision of Brad's glassy eyes from her mind.

Morning brought the glare of sunlight and the crushing weight of Jared's arm on her back. Her cheek was crushed against her pillow, and she was sweating in the sweatshirt she had worn to bed. Kim shifted her weight, and when she was looking up she noticed her father's deep brown eyes staring down at her. She didn't need to look any closer to realize he was livid.

"Hi, dad." She forced a smile that made her look horribly guilty.

"Sleep well?"

Kim was not surprised when five minutes later Jared was being run out of the house by her father, and that left Kim sitting at the kitchen table struggling to come up with an explanation that would satiate the man. It didn't matter to him that nothing had happened – considering he even believed her about that part –

"It's not what you think, dad." Kim tried for the tenth time. "I mean…he just fell asleep…in my bed…last night. It's all a big misunderstanding."

Kim's father was not the understanding type.

"You're grounded. For the next two weeks, you're confined to this house. If you get a job, then you go and you come home. That boy doesn't enter this house for the next two weeks, and after that he needs to be gone by ten."

"But I was going to go to –"

"-two weeks." Her father cut her off.

"He didn't do anything…I mean I didn't do anything…nothing happened between me and him! You're being unfair!"

For a moment, Kim thought he might decide her comment didn't warrant an answer, and instead simply leave the room. "Unfair?!"

Bad idea, Kim realized too late.

"I'm working so that you can go to school across the country, and you thank me by letting your boyfriend sleep over! How do you think that makes me feel, Kim?"

"Pretty lousy," she didn't look at him. "But –"

"You're grounded."

This time, the conversation was over. Kim blew a burst of air from her mouth, and a strand of her hair blew up before crashing back down on her face.

"Kim," her mother entered the room next, "Brad's mom wants you to speak at the funeral."

Kim's mother's eyes were swollen. She'd woken up to the Jared Cameron incident after apparently finding out about Brad when she'd gotten home.

"All right, Mom."

"And I want you to stay out of the woods."

"All right, Mom."

As her mother slinked away, Kim went up the stairs where she noticed a picture stuck in her mirror. It had been there since she'd been in elementary school, but normally she passed over it as an inconsequential memory. This time, however, she paused and stared at it closer.

It was a picture of Samantha and Kim in their old tree house in the woods.

"That's crazy," she said to herself, "and you're grounded…and you told your mom –"

Kim was pulling on tennis shoes and racing down the stairs before she could even finish her own thought. If she was wrong, she'd accept the punishment, but if Kim was right - It was a hunch, just a hunch.

Kim pushed open the front door.


	8. The Cullens

**Chapter Eight: The Cullens**

Kim made it to the edge of the woods when she realized that she'd made it the entire way pumped full of adrenaline, and now she was out. The summer heat had left sweat pouring down her face, and her breath was heavy. She took the step into the woods trying to remember where the tree house was and wishing she'd had the good sense to at least borrow Austin's bike.

Even though the sun was high, within the dense thicket Kim felt the twisting fear that came with shadows and darkness. The canopy of trees, it seemed, were blocking out all of the light. Ignoring her mother's concern, Kim trekked deeper knowing the tree house had to be here somewhere and hoping that somewhere was closer rather than farther.

She finally found it.

The old tree house was creviced in the tangle of branches with rotting planks and the general aura of decay. Kim remembered how her father had built it for them as a hideout, and his only rule had been they had to be home before dark. Samantha and Kim had spent hours together in this tree house, but looking at it now Kim was dismayed. If there was someone here, the pack would have found her – not far from the entrance of the woods, and Kim had been foolish to hope that she could find answers in an abandoned tree house.

Kim turned to leave when she heard the rustle of leaves behind her, and she was suddenly faced with the ruby eyes of a vampire.

"I remember you."

It spoke, but Kim was unable to form a coherent thought as she stared at the vampire she'd once called her best friend. It was Samantha, or it was a dead Samantha with red eyes, skin that radiated coldness, and who appeared more beautiful than she had ever been in her too short life.

It stepped closer to her, and Kim stumbled back realizing that she was terrified of her best friend and stupid for setting out alone. In her most distant nightmares, Kim would never have imagined her best friend trying to kill her, but now it seemed a not so distant possibility.

"He told me this would happen. He said my human memories would fade, but I remember you, Kim." It smiled. "I think I remember this place too, but I can't be sure where I know it from."

A slap of wind reawakened Kim's senses, but the only instinct that set in was to run.

"You smell like a dog." It wrinkled its nose. "You smell like those things that have been chasing me…I don't understand."

"Y…you're a vampire?" Kim hated how stupid she sounded. "That…that boy…he turned you. He killed Brad."

The vampire shook its head and sniffled back tearless sobs. For a moment, Kim could see Samantha through this new monster, but the ruby eyes were enough to make her wish the apparent stench of her hair would be enough to ward off an attack – should it come.

"The man we met at the restaurant – the vampire," she corrected, "he did turn me, and he told me about the rules and about what would happen to me, but I haven't seen him since. I came back to La Push because I had a brief dull memory of Brad, but I knew there was something patrolling the woods, vampire killers, so I came through the town. I didn't know my mom was looking for me; I just knew that I had to find Brad before my memories of him faded away. When I did, he was asleep in his bedroom, but he woke up when I entered. He was talking, but all I could feel was the burn in my throat at the scent of his breath. I thought about running, but then he said your name, Kim, and I knew that I remembered you, so I stayed. I misjudged my own self-control, so I lost it completely."

It – no, Samantha broke into a round of dry sobs, but Kim just stood in cold horror. Samantha was a vampire, and she had killed Brad. If the pack managed to find her they would kill her without a thought. Kim imagined Jared's teeth decapitating Samantha, and that caused her to tremble with more fear than simply being attacked by a vampire had. Samantha was a vampire, and Samantha had killed Brad, but this was Kim's fault, and she would save her best friend.

"Stay hidden," Kim managed to croak. "I'm going to get help."

"From the vampire killers?" The red eyes were frantic.

"No, from vampires."

Getting Embry Call to drive to the edge of the woods and pick her up was the easy part. Kim had a cell phone and promised him twenty dollars. Convincing him to drive her to the Cullens was much harder. Technically, Kim was forbidden from going to visit the vampire coven. It was an order that had been given by Jared and reinforced by Sam. Even though the Alpha voice didn't apply to Kim, she'd never wanted to see what would happen if she broke this one rule. Now though, she didn't have that luxury.

"Kim, I don't even like going there, and I'm in Jake's pack. I don't know what's important enough for you to _want_ to talk to them."

"I don't want to talk to them; I need to talk Jacob, and it can't wait!"

"Jared will kill me."

It was a justifiable argument. Even in cases like Quil's where he actually trusted the Cullens, he would never let Claire near the vampire coven. Jared, on the other hand, didn't trust them at all. It didn't matter that the wolves had allied themselves with the vampires on more than one occasion, as for as Jared was concerned the only good vampire was a dead one, or a re-dead one as it were. Kim doubted he would respond kindly to Embry if the boy was implicated in Kim's plan.

"We won't tell him," Kim argued. "And if we don't tell him, he'll never find out."

Embry pressed his foot to the gas, and the car lurched forward.

"I hope you're right, Kim."

The rest of the car ride went in silence.

The Cullen's house was nothing like Kim had imagined. She'd been picturing a Dracula style mansion complete with gargoyles, not a normal, albeit expensive-looking, house. Furthermore, there were windows, and even though Kim knew that vampires didn't actually burn in the sun, she still expected a windowless-house to hide the coffins. If Kim hadn't knows bloodsuckers lived in the house, she would've definitely given the place kudos for a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. As it were, Kim did know, and by the time Embry had parked, all of her previous bravery had evaporated, and she was left with only her base human instinct for self-preservation – to run.

Embry seemed to notice.

"You know, we can still turn back," he suggested.

Kim shook her head and made to get out of the car – her throat too dry to form an answer.

"He's going to kill me." Embry groaned again, but he got out of the car as well and, grabbing Kim's wrist, led her to the front door.

Before he could even knock, the door swung open and Kim looked into the golden eyes of a vampire with a pixie haircut and a wide smile.

"Your girlfriend?" she guessed.

Kim guessed that her face became horror-struck because a moment later the vampire laughed.

"I'm kidding," she reassured. "Why don't you come inside?"

"We're just here to see Jake," Embry explained. "Where is he?"

"Inside."

"Can you send him out, Alice?"

Her smile dropped, but the vampire called Alice gave up trying to persuade them, and she disappeared inside.

"That was rude."

Kim did not know why, but the thought that Embry may have insulted the vampire bothered her.

"Getting killed by your boyfriend would be worse," he rationalized.

Kim decided not to remind Embry that if Jared found out they'd come here it wouldn't matter if they'd actually gone inside or not, Embry's fate would be dealt out swiftly and mercilessly.

Jacob emerged a moment later.

"I knew Embry having a girlfriend was too good to be true." He closed the door behind him. "What brings you across the treaty line?" Jacob looked directly at Kim as he spoke, and she knew that he knew what she'd already discussed with Embry. If they got caught, Jared might just go on a killing spree.

"I need your help," Kim explained. "Uhh…that is…I need your help to save a vampire."

Kim was not sure what she'd expected Jacob Black's response to be. In her years of knowing him she'd never had a conversation with him – never had a conversation with him that mattered. Still, she was surprised when he let her explain the situation without interrupting.

When Kim finished speaking, Jacob stared at her in what she interpreted as shock before a wide smile broke out on his face.

"This…is surprising…" he said finally. "Kimberly Connweller is at the center of a vampire problem." Jacob's smile dropped. "I know you're worried, but Jared would never kill your friend, and he'd probably stop everyone –"

"You're wrong." Kim cut Jacob off. "He'd kill her if he thought it would keep me safe."

She didn't tell Jacob about Jared's promise not to hurt her friends. As far as Kim concerned, it was a promise that was void. She doubted Jacob would agree.

"Kim," Jacob started to argue.

"I know Jared pretty well…I may have never shared a mind with him, but I think I know him better than you guys do."

"Yeah," Embry joked, "in the Biblical sense."

Kim shot him a glare. "No. I meant…will you help me?" She decided to ignore Embry.

"I'll talk to Carlisle…uhh…Dr. Cullen, all right. I can't guarantee anything though."

When Jacob had gone, Kim shot Embry another glare for good measure, but the boy just laughed.

"You mean you guys have never…I mean really, what are you afraid of? You have serious commitment issues."

"I…what?" Rendered speechless, Kim shut her mouth. "I'm not even going to humor this conversation." She said when she recovered. "How is that your business at all?" The question was rhetorical. "I mean it has absolutely nothing to do with you!"

"Hey," Embry threw up his hands. "I just thought with him sleeping over all the time that…whoa…that's some major self-control. This imprinting stuff is serious."

Kim thought about backhanding Embry, but when she considered how annoying it would be to have a broken hand she reconsidered. Besides, if Jared found out that she'd broken her hand hitting Embry it would lead into questions about why she was hanging out with Jake's pack in the first place which would have a definite end with a killing spree by Jared. It was better to avoid medical issues if at all possible.

Jacob reemerged a moment later and all of Kim's attention left Embry.

"Carlisle has agreed to take her, but the treaty line is still in effect to the degree that Carlisle cannot cross into Quileute land to get her. You'll have to bring her here; Embry will go with you…just in case."

Kim tried her best to ignore the implication of Jacob's words. She knew Samantha could be dangerous, she'd killed Brad after all, but Kim owed her friend more than a decapitation and burning.

"All right," Kim agreed. "We'll take care of it."

She noticed that her voice shook as she spoke.

The drive back to the woods was tense rather than silent. Embry chatted mindlessly, but he did not mention Jared and he didn't tease Kim. He was scared, she realized, but not of the vampire. Embry and the other members of the pack were never afraid of those things that would make sense to fear – like bloodsucking agents of death. Embry was afraid because the two of them were encroaching on Sam's territory to steal a vampire, and for Embry that was more terrifying then having his head ripped off by a vampire or being attacked by Jared. No one was as serious about the threat of vampires as Sam was.

When they finally arrived, Kim had lost her fear. It was instead replaced with a cold sense of duty. She climbed out of the car and slammed the door closed behind her. Embry did likewise and they started the trek back towards Kim and Samantha's old tree house.

Samantha was waiting.

When she saw Embry she flinched, but she did not run away and she did not attack.

"I brought back help," Kim explained. "There are some vampires that are going to take you in Samantha…they're going to help you."

"He's…he's a vampire killer…" Samantha's voice shook from fear as if she did not understand her true strength.

"No. Embry's going to help. He's friends with the other vampires."

Embry made a face, not too fond of the association, but he did not argue the point. Kim guessed it was because he understood the importance of keeping Samantha calm, and getting her to the Cullens secretly.

"Why couldn't they come?" Samantha posed the question.

"It's too dangerous. Political treaty stuff…basically…vampires can't be on Quileute land, so they couldn't come here, and you can't be here. Once you're past the treaty line, the vampire killers can't hurt you anymore."

Kim noticed that her friend stared at her as though she was a child who was getting her first glimpse into understanding the world.

"Yeah, okay…let's go," Samantha agreed.

With incredible speed she leapt from the tree house and landed in front of Kim. Embry also inched closer and he started to lead the way making sure to be a blockade between the two girls.

The trek back seemed longer due to the fact that the two conspirators were burdened with a wanted vampire. Kim tried her best to concentrate on keeping her feet moving and not thinking. One foot after the other - get down this hill, and then get Samantha to the Cullens, one foot after the other.

Kim's dad had once told her "if you pay too much attention to one thing you're going to mess up". It was her test taking strategy therefore never to focus too much on one problem. Usually it worked. However, Kim never thought that his words could apply to walking. Walking was natural, effortless. She realized this too late as she noticed a bent twig the moment after the toe of her shoe got caught beneath it.

Kim fell -her palms sticking out just in time so that her chin did not crash against the forest floor.

"Are you okay?"

Embry rushed over as Kim stumbled up.

"I'm fine." She wiped her stinging hands on her jeans. "I just fell."

Embry started to shake, and then everything happened at once. A horse-size wolf crashed Samantha, who had started to leap forward, and Kim stumbled back. Her right palm had scratched against a rock, and a thin trail of blood had started to ooze towards the surface of her skin.

Embry howled, and Kim was not sure if he was trying to tell her to run or calling for help. It didn't matter. She wasn't moving. She owed Samantha. It was a foolish decision; the feral had taken over her friend. Samantha launched for Kim again, and this time Embry only had the time to jump in front of the vampire his shoulder instantly crushed. The timing was enough, though. In the second that Samantha stumbled back, Jared and Paul arrived - both in wolf form and ready to kill Samantha.

Kim could not let them kill her.

Embry lay on the ground trying to hold form while his body fought against him trying to become a human again. Paul was circling around Samantha whose ruby eyes were still fixated on Kim, and Jared was coming in for an attack.

Kim ran and jumped in front of Samantha throwing her arms out like a cross right as Jared jumped – not thinking that it was ridiculously stupid until his claws were swiping the air in front of her.


	9. The Funeral

**Chapter Nine: The Funeral**

* * *

"_You look beautiful, Kimby; you really do, and if Jared doesn't think so he's an idiot."_

_Kim smiled and fingered the skirt of her red dress. The fabric was filmy between her fingers, and as she looked in the floor length mirror she allowed herself to believe Samantha._"_Thanks, Samantha. And," she paused, "I'm sorry."_

"_What for?" Samantha looked genuinely confused, and the look was aided by the purple eye shadow that highlighted her expression – eyebrow lifted, eye widened._

"_For messing up the plans we made with Brad; you know, three best friends together for Junior Prom."_

_Samantha pulled Kim into a hug._ "_You've been crushing on Jared Cameron for over a year. Do you really think I would have let you say no to him? What kind of friend would I be if I did that, Kimby?"_

_Kim didn't answer. It was unneeded. She kept her smile plastered on her face, and hugged her best friend again._

"_Thanks, Samantha, for everything…"_

"_It's pretty."Kim touched the blue canvas of Samantha's new kite as she did her best to try and hide her jealously. It was pretty, and there was even a yellow tail that streamed out behind it._

"_You want to try it out!"The smile on Samantha's face was so wide her eyes were invisible. "We can get Brad to fly it with us."_

_Kim nodded._

_Outside, the breeze swirled around them threatening to steal Samantha's new kite, but the girl held it in her arms. It was a gift from her father, after all, a gift that had come from Arizona. Kim knew the feeling; mom was usually too busy with the baby, and dad was usually too busy with work, but last week her dad had taken her for ice cream. Chocolate ice cream on a waffle cone with sprinkles even though they both knew she was too old for daddy -daughter dates. It didn't matter; just like it didn't matter that they played with video games, not kites. The gift had come from a man that Kim could hardly remember the silhouette of._

_Brad's front door was unlocked, so the two girls rapped once-twice- before rushing in – almost forgetting to brush their shoes off on the mat._

"_Brad! Brad!" The chanting started throughout the house…_

"_It's just a stupid show. Why do we have to run home to watch it?"Brad huffed behind Kim and Samantha as they all rushed to his front door. Their backpacks bounced against them – Batman for Brad, Tinkerbell for Kim, and a brand new Sailor Moon backpack for Samantha._

"_It's not stupid," Kim yelled back to Brad._

"_Yeah, it's not, it's Sailor Moon!"_

"_Champion of justice," Kim added._

"_I know what it is, but it's still dumb," Brad grumbled as they entered his house. Samantha went for the remote and Kim plopped on the couch as Brad slouched in after them._

"_From a faraway place and time Earth's greatest adventure is about to begin." The girls chanted the mantra together, and Kim turned and noticed that Brad was mumbling it too…_

When Kim woke up she was lying in Emily's bed. Her face was crushed into the pillow, and she felt like she was suffering from whip lash, jet lag, and a three day long migraine. In short, everything hurt. She shifted in the bed until she had turned on her side, and she looked up to see Emily's scarred face staring at her with a melancholy smile.

"You're awake." Emily leaned over and stroked her hair.

"What happened?" Kim focused her eyes and started to sit up, in-spite of the pain. "I mean…I remember Samantha, and Jared…and I think I passed out."

"You owe Embry a lot more than twenty dollars, Kim. He probably saved your life," She sighed. "Why didn't you tell us about your friend, Kim? Sam could've…" she stopped, and this time she started to cry. Tears rushed down her face and she choked on sobs.

Kim's heart started to beat – faster and faster until she thought it would burst. "What happened?" she grabbed onto Emily's shoulders. "What happened?"

"Paul killed your friend. He didn't have a choice. Embry knocked Jared out of the way, so he wouldn't hurt you, and Paul ripped Samantha to pieces. Do you know what it was like to watch them carry you in here? Embry told Jared everything. Why Kim?"

Kim's hands dropped from Emily's arms, and she wrapped them around her stomach.

"Samantha died because of me, Emily. It's my fault that she got turned into a vampire. I couldn't let her die again. I couldn't let them kill her even if she was the one who killed Brad. Because she's my friend; she's my best friend, Emily. You guys always talk about brothers and imprints, but you forget about friends. I thought the Cullen's could help. I thought I could do it on my own, but I couldn't."

Kim didn't look at Emily because she knew it would force her to apologize, and she couldn't apologize. No matter how much she wanted to, Kim wouldn't apologize for trying to save her friend's life.

Emily hugged her. "I was so worried about you." She still hadn't stopped crying. "Not because of what it would do to Jared if something happened to you, but because I don't want to see you hurt, Kim. Don't you understand?"

Kim nodded her chin still creviced in Emily's shoulder. "I understand…" She remembered again, the reason why everyone liked Emily. "Is Embry okay?"

"He will be. He broke his shoulder. Then he tackled a werewolf while his shoulder was broken, but he'll be okay."

"I guess I'm alone then." This time Kim spoke to herself. "The three musketeers don't exist anymore. It's just me, Kim, who always survives because she has a pack of wolves to protect her."

Kim collapsed back on Emily's pillow, and closed her eyes. It was time to ignore Emily, she decided. With her eyes closed, she laid there until she heard the door close and listened as Emily told everyone that "Kim is doing well. She'll be fine, but it's a lot for her to process right now. It makes sense that she wants to be alone. She just needs time."

Not long after, it seemed that everyone had cleared out, but Kim knew it wasn't true. Emily's house was never truly empty. She climbed out of bed anyway, even though her neck still ached, and walked to the window. It looked out onto the beach – the same beach that Kim had grown up with. The one she had played with Samantha and Brad in.

Reaching up a hand, Kim unlocked the window and pushed it up. Taking a look back to make sure the door was closed, she stuck one foot out of the window and then another. The salty air of the beach greeted her, and a reminder – Brad was dead; his funeral was tomorrow, and Kim was supposed to make a speech. And Samantha was dead, but to the world she was just missing, and she would always just be missing. That was her fate.

Kim walked to the beach. Her legs guiding her as her mind resisted the revelation, and from her pocket she pulled out the picture that had brought her to Samantha – Kim and Samantha by the tree house Kim's father had built for them. With shaking hands, Kim began to tear the picture – half, quarter, eighths, sixteenths, twenty-fourths…she threw the picture to the wind.

"I'm sorry, Samantha." Now it was her turn to cry. Not out of worry, but from failure. "This is my fault, and I'm sorry. You're dead because of me…because I couldn't save you."

Her tongue caught her teardrops and the sand caught her knees. Kim sat in the sand with tears that wouldn't stop and the urge to curl into the fetal positions and cry until her tear ducts dried.

"You're so stupid." She stopped speaking to Samantha. "Why can't you ever be here when I need you? What are you afraid of? Do you think I hate you? I don't. Are you angry with me? All right, fine, be angry with me, but don't leave me alone. I don't have anyone right now."

Her pleas turned into sobs, and a moment later he was there. Jared's arms wrapped around her, and he picked her up from the sand. Kim wrapped her arms around his neck and she closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at him. If he was hurt, it was her fault, and if he was angry, she wouldn't be able to stand it. So she didn't look at him.

"I'll never leave you alone," he finally said. "You should know that by now."

She still kept her eyes closed, but she almost smiled.

o0o

"I was asked to make a speech about Brad, and now that I'm up here I don't know what to say. I mean, I wrote a speech, but I feel there's something dishonest about writing a speech that recalls all of the good someone did, and presenting it in front of congregation. I've never been good at speechmaking.

"I met Brad on the first day of kindergarten. He was Bradley then, and I was Kimberly. He was the only boy who would play with girls back then even though he knew he was in danger of getting cooties. I remember that my friend Samantha and I would wear our gloves in class, so that when we handed him toys we wouldn't accidentally spread them. Our teacher didn't like that.

"If I had known that something like this would happen – that his life would be stolen from him much too early, and much too brutally, I would have told him what all the memories of good deeds could never express. I would have asked to know the time, and the place, so I could go with him because friends don't abandon each other. Friends stay together no matter what comes – in life and death.

"I love you, Brad, I'm sorry, and I'll miss you forever."

Kim didn't notice she was crying until, as she stepped away from the podium, and started down the stairs, Brad's mother pulled her into a hug pressing a handkerchief that smelled like vanilla scented candles against Kim's face, and sat her into the front row of pews.

"It's okay," the woman comforted – the woman with a dead child. "It's okay. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault. Bad things happen to good people, and you couldn't have done anything to stop it."

Kim let the woman speak. It was for her comfort, Kim knew that. How else could the woman accept that her son had been attacked by an animal in the woods and his body was so ravaged she had to wait three days to see him? Three days so that his body could be pumped, so no one knew he'd been sucked dry. Three days because for every animal bite that wasn't there one had to be created to keep the secret; to protect the reservation. Kim let the woman try and comfort her, and she allowed herself to continue to cry.

When the funeral ended, Kim left the small church stumbling in her heels and wiping at mascara stains on her cheeks. Her mother's pearls felt heavy around her neck, and the black dress blew in the wind brushing against her calves. Her mother spoke, low and comforting, to Brad's parents, and Austin sat on the sidewalk with his hands around the program. Their father wasn't there, he was working, and Kim was almost grateful. She was still grounded, and she'd snuck out. A funeral wasn't enough to sway her father.

"Kim!"

Jared was suddenly beside her. He wore a pair of old jeans and a faded t-shirt, and he grabbed her wrist as if to make a point – you're not getting away – before walking towards his car. Kim stumbled after him, not really having a choice, and allowed Jared to push her into the passenger's seat of the car. He climbed in the other side, and slammed on the gas with a simple command."Put on your seatbelt."

They were out of La Push before he said another word.

"Sam told me to get you. I would've anyway, but Sam agreed. The vampire that turned Samantha was at the funeral, Kim. He was lurking outside. It was just Sam and I there…we were guarding. I was nervous, so Sam and I were patrolling around the church, and we saw him. The bloodsucker was all dressed up, too."

Jared slowed down the car, and stopped speaking. "How are you doing?" he asked.

Kim ignored the question. "What else happened?"

Jared shrugged, but his eyes were livid. "Nothing…he got away, but Sam recognized him from the fight. He's a member of the Volturi, Kim. We don't why he's here, or what he wants, but we know who he is, and we weren't able to catch him. They're going after him, but Sam's…we're _all_ worried about you."

Kim turned her head until she was facing out the window. _Volturi_, it was a name she hardly knew. The wolves and the Cullen's had faced them, Kim knew that, but Jared always kept her out of the loop when it came to the details. They were powerful vampires, but how powerful Kim didn't know, and she knew they were ancient. They made the Cullen's seem like children. It scared her, though she wouldn't admit it, to know that Jared and Sam hadn't been enough to take the vampire down, and it angered her to think that he had turned Samantha.

Samantha. Brad. They were both dead. They were both dead because she'd been unable to save them.

_All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity_. The quote came back to her now, but it did nothing to make her feel better. She felt tears burning behind her eyes, and her head ached to push them out, but Kim held them back and focused harder on the view outside the window. She watched trees flit past, and noticed a river in the distance. A thought flashed in her mind. _To be or not to be_ there was a morbid humor to the thought now.

Her heart contracted, and anxiety started to build in her stomach as if the two functions believed they had a chance against her will power.

"Stop, stop the car."

Jared complied.

Kim pushed open the passenger seat door, and started away from the car and towards the trees with Jared following behind her. The bark was rough as she brushed her fingers against it and the trees stood proud making a path for her to the bank of the river. The water rushed before her climbing over rocks and crashing down slopes.

"I am like a shipwrecked woman clinging to some wreckage." Kim spoke the words. "Do you remember that play, Jared? We read it in English. I remember it because our teacher talked about how man has always feared drowning." Kim turned to Jared who looked confused. "You said you were worried about me, Jared; well I'm drowning, and I don't think you can save me. I don't think anyone can."

"Don't say that." Jared reached forward a finger and brushed at her hair. "You're going to be okay. You will be. This is just…" he gave up.

Kim wasn't sure if he gave up after looking in her eyes, or if he really was out of comfort. She didn't blame him either way. There was little he could say.

"What do you know about rivers?" she turned back to the water. "Did you know that rivers can break down mountains, or that the pressure of the water can split a rock? Or did you know that millions of people drown each year, and thousands drown because they are swept away in a river current…"

Kim asked the question without turning back to him – her feet inching closer towards the rushing water."If I were to jump in, what would you do?"

"I'd save you. Of course I'd save you." His voice rose in panic.

"You would, wouldn't you, but you don't understand. If I were to jump in it would be because I'd lost all hope, because I realized that I was completely alone and I didn't have anything to live for. If I was selfish enough to do that, I wouldn't want you to save me. I'd want you to leave me to the initial shock of the water even when my lungs started to burn and, submerged, I'd be forced to breathe in water. Do you know why? If I jumped in, I don't deserve to be saved because I'm not worthy to hold Brad and Samantha's memories. I'm not worthy to be my parent's child or Austin's sister, and I'm not worthy of you. So I'd want you to let me die, and I'd want you to leave my body to rot." Kim paused and backed away from the river turning back to Jared. His eyes were wide, but not in shock. They were wide with fear, and Kim could see that he was struggling to decide whether he wanted to grab her, or if he was too afraid too. "I've learned that I can't fly," she continued, "but I can swim, so I will because the wreckage is still floating, and if I can grab it, I'll survive."

Kim didn't smile, but she wiped away her tears and swore not to let them fall again. She owed her friends that, and she owed Jared that too.

"Can you take me home now? I'm probably in a lot of trouble."

Jared nodded.

* * *

**A/N: This is the second time I've referenced Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House". Umm…it's a short play, so if you're interested check it out. Sorry for the author's note, and for taking so long to upload this chapter.**


	10. Early Morning Visitor

**Chapter Ten: Early Morning Visitor**

* * *

"What's this?"

Kim took the wrapped box and turned it over in her hands. It was perfectly square with thick red wrapping paper and white ribbon tied in a large bow.

"I missed you." Jared shrugged it off as if it were the most commonplace thing.

"It's been three days, Jared."

"I almost lost my mind in the first twenty-four hours."

Kim rolled her eyes, but she smiled as she looked down at the gift. It had been almost two weeks since Brad's funeral and almost a week since she had been re-grounded by her father. Jared had broken the rules to visit her–through her window in the middle of the night. He'd been patrolling every day since Brad's funeral, though, so when he had visited her during her "house arrest," it had been to promptly fall asleep in Kim's bed.

Today ,though, Jared wasn't patrolling until later, and with Kim's dad at work, he'd managed to convince her mom that he should be allowed to visit Kim. Kim assumed that her mother had agreed because the woman had been worried about her ever since the funeral.

"Can I open it now?"

Jared nodded and sat down beside her on her bed. "It's not really anything special."

Kim pulled the bow from the present and tore away at the paper before opening the box. Inside there was a bracelet with perfectly round black stones held together with a metal clasp.

"They're onyx." Jared seemed to be able to read her mind. "I would have bought you something nicer, but I –"

"I love it." Kim cut him off because he'd started stumbling as if he was afraid he'd chosen the wrong thing. It was reasonable, she guessed, that he would think so; Kim had turned down the diamond ring he'd offered her. "It's really pretty, but-" She stopped herself. "Why don't you put it on for me?"

Kim tried her best not to pay attention to the way his eyes lit up when he clasped the bracelet around her wrist. The last thing she wanted was to accidentally bring up the future that hung in the air between the two of them. The past two weeks had been too hectic and too devastating to bring up what would happen when summer ended. But now Jared could mention it, and Kim was afraid that he might. The pack was hunting a vampire, and she didn't want him to lose focus because he was consumed with the thought that she might leave him – even if for a few months. The guilt would kill her if something happened to him because of her.

"So, how much longer are you in for?"

"Until the first of August, since I broke the rules and snuck out. And I'm pretty sure you're banned from the house until then," Kim reminded him.

She'd expected Jared to take her comment as a joke, she was instantly mistaken. She could read panic in his eyes, and his face suddenly froze in horror.

"You don't have to leave!" Kim grabbed his shoulder, suddenly afraid he would burst through the window and leave. "I mean…I like it when you come and visit me."

Kim was glad that her hair was in a braid because she had the urge to brush her hair behind her ears – something she took to doing when she was embarrassed, Jared knew this. It was strange to feel nervous in front of Jared. It was over a year since they had started dating.

"You're sure." He eyed her.

Kim nodded. "It's so boring being stuck in here all day with just Austin for company, and I haven't been feeling well since Brad's funeral, and…well, I missed you too."

She flopped back on her bed and grabbed her blue teddy bear, holding it in her arms. She felt stupid holding onto the sophomore-year Secret Santa present and even stupider being embarrassed in front of Jared. Stupidity didn't stop her from blushing, though.

"You did?"

He sounded surprised, and Kim feared that the conversation she dreaded having was about to come up.

Jared leaned over her and plucked the blue teddy bear out of her hands.

"It's sorta funny," he said, choosing to lie down beside her on the bed.

"What is?" Kim reached for her teddy bear, but Jared held it out of her reach.

"I'm afraid, sometimes, that I'll wake up and find out that that you changed your mind. That this was a high school crush that you're over. It's different for me then it is for you, Kim. You miss me, but I'm in pain when I'm away from you. I worry about you – more now than I did before – and I'm worried for you, Kim."

"Why is that?" Her voice shook.

"Because you're human, just human, and you've been forced into a world that isn't human at all. Sometimes I'm afraid that you'll give up on it."

Jared pressed the teddy bear to his chest, and Kim smiled at the sight. Here he was – six feet tall and made of pure muscle, holding Kim's teddy bear as if it was a comfort to him. It was a blackmail-worthy photograph that Kim wasn't planning on taking.

Kim wanted to put him at ease, but the words didn't come. Instead they bounced around her brain mingled with two others: _Georgetown_ and _marriage_.

Kim rolled over so she was propped up on her elbows, and she kept her eyes level with the ones Jared had turned to her.

"I might just be human, Jared, but I belong in this world." She finally managed to summon the words. "And I'm glad you showed it to me."Kim wasn't sure if it was true, but she was glad to have said it because Jared seemed to calm down.

"Does that mean you won't leave?" Jared breached the question with all of the care of someone who feared the response. "I mean, if it's what you really want then I'll–I won't stop you, but – are you going to leave?"

Kim sat up in her bed and stole back her blue teddy bear. She placed it in her lap and started to play with its ears.

"I love you, Jared, you know that," she ignored the question "And I don't want to do anything to hurt you, even though I know I have before." Kim paused and attempted to reorganize her thoughts. "Can't we talk about this later? When everything blows over, and I know you're going to be safe. Can we talk about then?"

Jared nodded, and his eyes flashed that look again. He wanted to talk to her now, but he wanted to please her more. The conflict raged behind his brown eyes.

She tried to explain. "It's just…I'm worried about you too, Jared. I'm always worried about you, and I would die if something happened to you. I don't want it to be because of me. I don't want my decisions to stop you from losing focus especially if-" She stopped again. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and she hated that. Kim hated that his conflict hurt her so deeply.

"Kim." Jared pulled her back down to where he lay on the bed. "Kim, are you afraid I'm going to get hurt?" He smiled.

She nodded. "Always, and I know you don't even think about it, but-"

He stopped her with a kiss, and Kim was not sure whether he had simply forgotten his previous inquiry or if he was simply more concerned about her. She guessed it was the second.

It was a kiss that started at her lips and drifted to her chin and her neck. His lips snaked up her jawline and to her hair to rest against her ear.

"Don't worry about me, Kim." He kissed her again. "I'll always be there to protect you, as long as you let me."

Kim wanted to tell him that her safety wasn't the reason she worried about him, but the words didn't come. His lips did – crashing against her own.

_Kim stood in front of the Italian restaurant where she'd eaten with Samantha the day before her friend had gone missing. The differences were that she was alone, and in front of her was the vampire who had turned her friend. He looked the same as the one time Kim had seen him. He was inhumanly beautiful with pale skin and chiseled muscles, a hard jaw, and dark brown curls that brushed his temples. Unlike the first time she had seen him, however, his eyes glowed ruby red. _

_The demon took a step towards her, and Jared was suddenly there. He stood a human in front of her, but as he shook, h_, h_e started to change form into the giant wolf that Kim had rarely witnessed. The wolf lunged for the vampire, but the vampire easily dodged him and sent a kick into the wolf's ribs. The wolf stumbled back and shifted back into Jared once more - a boy lying on the ground and panting for breath. Kim stared forward at the red eyes that were no longer fixated on her, and her heart started to thunder. _

_A knife was suddenly in her hand - a crude bone knife, the kind that Kim had only seen in museums and collections. Kim turned it over in her hand and drove it into her heart. _

Kim woke up gasping for breath and blinking into utter darkness. Her clock read 2:05 in glowing red numbers. With her hair matted to her face and sweat clinging to her shirt, Kim lay back down and tried to close her eyes to sleep. That's when she heard breathing beside her. Turning over, Kim noticed that Jared was asleep on her bed, and he was half-naked.

She started to shake him, but he didn't move. Whatever had made him so tired meant that no amount of shaking him was going to wake him up, and Kim knew better than to make a noise. But She was pretty sure her father was home, and the last thing she needed was for her father to come bursting in her room and find Jared Cameron asleep on her bed, shirtless.

"Jared." She kept her voice in a whisper this time when she shook him. "Jared, what are you doing here?"

He still didn't wake up.

What was Jared doing here? Kim pondered the question and instantly panicked. He'd left, hadn't he? Her dream had left her mind distorted, and she wasn't sure when she'd fallen asleep or if Jared had actually left at all.

She remembered Jared kissing her, but nothing else had happened between them. She would have remembered it – wouldn't she? It didn't matter, not now. It was more important that she wake him up. If he'd left, then there was a reason for him to come back, and if he hadn't left, then Kim was sure Sam would be searching for him.

Kim jumped from her bed and to her nightstand, where her iPod was lying, headphones falling into the drawer. She grabbed it and stuck the headphones in Jared's ears, turning it to full volume and pressing play.

He jolted awake with a start, and Kim pressed her hand against his mouth, afraid he'd make a noise and wake her house. Instead, he grabbed her, flipping her on her back and ripping the headphones from his ears.

_Don't phase. Don't phase. Don't phase._ She scrunched her eyes closed, knowing that if he did lose control there was absolutely nothing she could do.

"Kim?" He flopped back. "Oh man, I fell asleep, didn't I? Aww…shit…"

Kim pushed herself up as he continued with his expletives.

"Why are you here?" she managed to ask him, her voice shaking. "I mean, I thought you left."

"I did…" He wasn't really paying attention to her. "I came back. I came to make sure you were all right, and I fell asleep. Damnit."

Another round started, a,, nd this time Kim managed to smile. So he _had _left. Her memory started to piece itself back together as her dream faded. He'd left because Sam was waiting for him, and his mom had made it clear that between Kim and Sam, Jared had to spend at least four hours a day at home. Kim knew that, of course she knew that. Stupid dream making her confused – delaying her memory until she'd startled her shape-shifting boyfriend awake.

"Are you okay?" Jared finally seemed to notice her. "You look...scared."

"You just jumped on me," Kim lied. "Of course I'm scared. Why are you here again?"

With speed Kim had forgotten he had, Jared pressed his hand to her mouth before placing a finger to his lips and running to the window. Kim followed him, trying her best not to make too much noise.

The window was open, and below them Paul stood. He hissed something up to Jared that Kim didn't hear, and the next moment Jared was pulling her away and Paul was coming through her window.

"Jared," he said, spoke in a hiss, "Sam needs you _now."_

"What's going on?" Kim asked again, but Jared seemed to once again forget that she existed.

"I'm staying here with Kim." This time, Jared pushed her behind him as if he perceived Paul as somehow being a threat to her safety. "I'm not leaving her unprotected. We don't know if–"

"Jared!" This time Paul did not hiss. His voice came out strong, and Kim cringed at the thought of her father waking from his bed and starting down the hall to her room.

"Be quiet!" she whispered, but they both ignored her.

"I'm not leaving her!" Jared's voice rose as well. "And Sam won't make me; you know he won't."

"C'mon, Jared," Paul sighed. "What if we bring her to Emily's?"

"No." Kim seemed to forget that the whole house was asleep, because this time it was her voice that rose above a whisper. "It's two in the morning. Besides, why won't either one of you tell me what's going on?"

Both boys finally seemed to remember that she was there, but neither started to explain.

"What if we send Brady to guard, Jared? He can pace around outside. He'll like that; it will make him feel important."

"Fine." Jared grumbled his concession, and Paul jumped out the window, landing on his feet with perfect balance.

Jared turned to Kim and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll see you later."

He was gone before she could yell at him or demand he tell her what was going on. Kim collapsed back in the bed – too tired to do anything else, but she stayed awake, too frustrated to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: I'm doing these a lot, aren't I? Sorry about the delay. Some unavoidable, real world, school concerns came up. **


	11. Brighton Maslow

**Chapter Eleven: Brighton Maslow**

* * *

"Happy Birthday, Austin."

Kim mustered as much enthusiasm as she could, and plopped into her chair, placing his present on the table – a present that had been bought with Kim's graduation money.

The now thirteen year old smiled and dropped his spoon – letting it plop back in the bowl. He even placed his Nintendo DS down, taking the present in his hands as he prepared to open it.

"Austin!" Their mom snatched the present away from him. "You can't open any presents until your party; I told you that."

Kim smiled, but it lacked any real humor. She was too tired, having not managed to sleep at all after Paul and Jared had left in the early hours of the morning. She'd been too focused on why the two of them had been in her room and, of course, her dream. She'd hated that dream.

"Kimberly."

Kim turned to the voice of her father. His mouth was in a hard line and he was dressed for work.

"Yes?"

"Have you found a job yet?"

Kim shook her head, deciding not to remind him that, after grounding her the second time, he'd specified she wasn't to leave the house unless it was burning down.

"Well," his frown deepened, "I want you to look for a job. So you can start going out again, but I want you home by six o' clock every night, and I don't want your boyfriend coming over. Do you understand?"

Kim smiled through her drowsiness. "Yes, sir."

Thirty minutes later, Kim was fighting her exhaustion as she pulled on tennis shoes and started to hike towards Emily's house knowing better than to ask for the car on Austin's birthday, and her first day free from being grounded.

"Kim."

Emily did not seem surprised to see her when Kim finally knocked on her door, but she reached over and gave her a hug anyway. "You look exhausted."

"Jared and Paul came to my house at two in the morning yesterday." She didn't elaborate, but Emily's eyes flashed with knowledge that Kim didn't have.

"Why don't I get you a drink?"

There it came, a reality that Kim was familiar with. Emily was hiding something.

"Thanks."

A glass of water appeared in front of her, and Kim took a small sip before she focused her eyes on Emily's.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Why were Jared and Paul at my house, and why wouldn't they tell me why?"

Kim could feel anger pushing through her, but it was anger based on a lack of sleep rather than a lack of knowledge about what Jared and Paul were actually hiding. "And why aren't you surprised to see me?" Her voice dropped with the final question.

Emily laughed. "Sam got you out of purgatory," she explained. "I think he was just tired of Jared spending every waking moment pinned to his side complaining, so he had a talk with the council and Old Quil called your father."

"A council member called my dad?" Kim's jaw dropped open. That would explain why her father had been in such a bad mood this morning.

Emily nodded, still smiling. "When you get home your father will probably tell you that he found you a job. That's how Old Quil got you out. Brady and Collin are both in summer school because they fell behind, and they both need tutors."

"The council called my dad?" Kim repeated the phrase, still in disbelief. "That's pathetic."

Kim took another sip from the glass trying to figure out how much Jared must have annoyed Sam.

"Don't get the wrong idea." Emily seemed to read her mind. "I was joking. Sam was concerned. The pack can't afford for Jared to lose focus, especially now."

That, Kim understood. "Yeah, I know – wait, what do you mean _now?_ The secret last night; is the vampire back?" She felt her heart start to pound against her chest even as she tried to control it.

"That's what we thought." Emily finally started to speak. "The boys found a dead man in the woods. He wasn't a local. At first, they thought it had been a vampire attack. It made sense, after all, but the man hadn't been sucked dry. His body was mauled and it looked like parts of his flesh had been eaten." Emily trembled.

"You mean like a bear," Kim rationalized, "or a mountain lion?"

She wasn't sure why Emily was so concerned. Animal attacks, though used as a cover for the supernatural, did occur.

"Don't you think that maybe they should report it to the police? Or animal control?" Kim continued.

"Not an animal," Emily disagreed, but she said nothing else to Kim, choosing instead to simply murmur to herself about legends, and the moon, and Kim thought she heard the word _Underworld, _but she could have been wrong. Emily didn't seem like the Urban Fantasy type.

Kim left Emily's house shortly after her questions had been answered. She wanted to be out before the wolves returned, but not because she was avoiding them. They were loud, she was tired, and Kim needed quiet. She considered going home – probably the best option – and sleeping, but having been trapped in the house, Kim wanted to stay out for as long as possible.

First Beach wasn't deserted, since it was summer. Tourists lounged on the beach with their giant umbrellas and their toddlers, but Kim had grown up on this beach so it was easy for her to find somewhere quiet to sit – isolated and hidden behind a rock.

"Hey."

Kim leapt up at the sudden noise from a boy she hadn't heard the footsteps of.

"Hi." Kim's voice shook, the start not having yet abated.

"I'm Brighton." The boy smiled. He had a nice-looking smile with eve white teeth.

"Kim," she stuttered out.

"You don't remember me do you?"

Kim focused on the boy. He was a few inches taller than Kim with golden, brown hair, side burns, and the making of a small beard all scruffy looking in appearance. His eyes were startlingly blue, and as he crossed his arms, Kim noticed that his nails were long and jagged. He wasn't a local, but Kim did recognize him, vaguely.

"Not really, no," she admitted.

"I saw you at the smoothie shop," Brighton reminded her. "The pretty Indian girl with eyelashes so long I spent five minutes trying to figure out if they were real."

Kim smiled in-spite of the fact that this strange boy had found her and was not only speaking to her, but he was also paying her compliments.

"Are you visiting La Push?" Kim asked.

"You could say that." Brighton's smile dropped and he looked past her. "It's a nice place, and one of these days I'd like to come here for a vacation. Actually, _Kim,_ I'm here on business." His tongue rolled around her name.

"Oh." Small-talk finished; she turned to leave.

"You look sad," Brighton took her wrist and turned her towards him. "You look like you've seen death."

Kim didn't answer.

"I'm an orphan, so I know how you feel. My parents were murdered."

"I'm sorry." She stumbled over the words. Kim was sorry; just the thought of losing her parents was enough for her to feel empathy for this boy she barely knew. "My friend died recently," Kim explained, "I haven't exactly recovered yet."

"We have something in common then."

Kim noticed that Brighton was unable to decide whether he wanted his hands inside or outside of his pockets.

"Too bad."

He sent her a quizzical look, but Kim's phone started to ring before she could explain. It was Jared.

"I have to go," she excused herself. "It's my boyfriend."

Brighton nodded, and started to walk away. Suddenly, he turned back.

"Kim, we should hang out sometime. You could show me around La Push."

"Sure, Brighton."

Kim was running away from the sand bank, pressing her phone to her ear before she considered that she'd agreed to hang out with a complete stranger.

She shrugged it off, telling herself she wouldn't actually do it.

"Hey, Jared."

"Where are you?" His voice was frantic through the line. "Emily said you left. Where'd you go?"

"I'm at home," she lied, sort of. Kim was heading home. She'd be there in a few minutes. "Today's Austin's birthday, and I have to be home for his party because both of my parents are going to work afterwards."

"All right, stay there. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Is something wrong, Jared?"

The line went dead. Kim was getting tired of this.

Austin's idea of a birthday party was getting their mom to drive him and his friends to Port Angeles where they could race go-carts and play laser tag. Kim had gained a reprieve from going simply because it was her job to host the "after party" while her mother went upstairs to lie down. The after-party was simply Austin, video games and left over cake. So Kim's only job was to clean up the kitchen of present wrappings, pizza boxes, and paper plates all because the "before party" had occurred at their house.

Kim had barely gotten to the front door of the house when Jared appeared behind her.

"Where were you?"

Busted. She stuck the key in the door, turned, and pushed.

"It's nice to see you too, Jared."

"Kim, I'm serious." He looked…angry – like he was barely holding himself together.

"I was at the beach. I was already heading home when you called, okay?" She snapped the last word with more annoyance than he probably deserved.

Kim entered the house and Jared followed her so close that Kim could feel his breath on her neck.

"Why are you here, anyway?"

He didn't answer.

Sure enough, pizza boxes lay stacked on the counter and plates were scattered on the kitchen table still holding extra globs of cheese and smears of tomato sauce. Austin, however, was nowhere to be found, so Kim figured he was playing video games in his bedroom instead of out in the living room.

"Jared?" Kim turned away from the boxes. "Why are you here?"

"Claire's missing." Jared spit out the words. His eyes were suddenly ablaze with anger, and the shaking started. "Emily stepped out for a second…just a second…and now she's gone. The stench of leech was all over her room." Jared's fist slammed into the pizza boxes.

Kim froze. She didn't do so much as breathe, afraid it might set him off. Still, although her body was frozen, her mind was racing. Claire? First Samantha, then Brad, now Claire. She was a kid – probably too young to realize what was going on. What if something happened to her? What if she was killed? Or worse. What if she was turned?

"Jake's entire pack is out looking for Claire right now. Quil is barely hanging on right now."

_Like you_. Kim kept the thought to herself. This was not the time. She couldn't afford to anger him and have him phase in the middle of her kitchen. If Kim had never been afraid of Jared, she would admit that she was now – just a little bit.

"Why did you lie to me?" his voice was still shaking.

"I didn't –" she stopped. "I'm sorry, but I'm okay."

That seemed to do it. Jared stopped shaking though his eyes hadn't actually calmed down. He started to brush through her hair with his fingers as if to assure himself that, yes, this was Kim standing in front of him and not a phantom.

"I want you to stay home." Jared finally said. "I know you're going to argue with me, but I'm begging you, Kim. Stay here until we figure out what's going on."

"And what's going on, Jared?" Kim found the words. "Emily said there was a murder last night, and now Claire's missing."

"We don't think they're connected." Jared's fingers hadn't left her hair. "But the bloodsuckers might know more about the killing. Sam, Paul, and I are going to go see the bl- the Cullens tonight."

"You'll tell me if you find anything out, won't you?"

Kim knew he probably wouldn't agree unless she commanded him to.

"Can't you just let me protect you from this, Kim?" His voice hinged on desperation.

She shook her head.

"Not anymore. I'm part of this now, Jared, and not just because of you. Brad and Samantha are dead. I can't just be protected anymore."

She tried her best to make her voice strong – to let him know that she meant it. She wouldn't – couldn't – just sit on the sidelines anymore.

"Kim-"

"You're not allowed to be here."

Austin stood at the stairs. His DS was in his hands, and with a look that said blackmail, he started around the kitchen looking to see if there was any pizza left.

"He's leaving, Austin." Kim didn't need to look at her brother to know his face dropped. "Right?" she directed the question towards Jared.

"I'm sending Brady over." His voice was flat with the statement, and it lacked the explanation that Kim didn't really need.

"Jar-"

"Really!?" Austin rushed over – a wide smile on his face. "He couldn't come to my birthday party because he was busy. This is epic!"

_Epic_? Kim decided not to think about his word choice. It was the perfect set-up. Brady and Austin were in the same grade at school and were friends. Kim knew the real reason though. She thought about arguing, but stopped at a look from Jared.

_I won't risk your safety_, it said.

"Fine."

Jared smiled for the first time, and Austin joined him.

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**A/N: Super sorry. I completely forgot I was supposed to be uploading a chapter today. **


	12. The Georgetown Hoyas

**A/N: Yay! So thanks to Project Team Beta! In-spite of my procrastination, they got my chapter back to me in time :)))**

**Chapter Twelve: The Georgetown Hoyas**

Brady's arrival was the perfect distraction for Austin. The two thirteen year olds stayed completely focused on Kingdom Hearts while Kim worked at cleaning the kitchen. Her mind was whirling, though. Claire had been kidnapped, and the wolves – not sure who it was or, more importantly, where she was – had gone into panic. She remembered the anger that had been etched on Jared's face, and Kim found herself shuddering at the memory.

"Kim."

She turned.

Kim's mom stood in the stairway. When Kim turned to regard her, the woman's eyes swept over the now clean kitchen and then to Brady and Austin in front of the television with game controllers in their hands.

"You boys be good. If you get hungry, I'll order another pizza," she called out. "Kim, I want to talk to you."

Kim followed her mother up the stairs and to Kim's bedroom. Lying on her bed was a mass of the objects Kim was supposed to have already bought or searched her house for. There was a towel set lying on top of a sheet set, empty luggage, and a mass of school supplies as well as a list – a pretty long list – of what Kim still needed to pack.

"I pooled your graduation money," her mother explained with off-handed boredom. "Here's the rest of it. We'll get the rest of your stuff when we arrive in D.C., I guess."

Kim stared at her bed and realized that all of this was really happening. Her dream was really coming true, and she was horribly unprepared for it to begin. That was her mother's point.

"I heard what happened, Kim." Her mother kept talking. "About Jared proposing to you, I mean. His mother called. You made the right choice. You're not ready to get married anyway." Kim's mother pursed her lips when she was finished speaking, and she stroked her daughter's hair. "You need to move forward now and focus on the task at hand. You're leaving sooner than you think, and a break-up –"

"I didn't break up with him!"

It was irrelevant to her mother's point, but Kim felt the need to announce it. Georgetown was waiting for her, and she did not know whether to be excited or terrified, but Kim did know that whatever was happening here between her and Jared had to be solved before she left for the other side of the country.

"I didn't say no to him either, I just ran away," Kim continued. "I was scared, and angry, and –"

"Kim –"

"I have to get out of La Push; now more than ever I have to get away from here, but I can't leave like this."

The words sounded strange as they fell out of her mouth, and they were so unlike anything she'd ever heard herself say. It would be simpler, she knew, to pack and leave – go to Georgetown and forget her home. She could let her family think she'd broken up with Jared, and his could think she was a heartless imprint who wanted to see their son fall apart. It would be simpler, but also impossible. Kim knew that.

"So you're giving up Georgetown?" Her mother's face held fury that was barely hidden in her eyes.

"No, I'm just…I have to fix things first."

It wasn't as though come fall Kim wasn't going to board a plane, fly to Washington D.C., and immerse herself in her studies. Kim would do all that, but right now she had to focus on ending the impasse she was holding with the person who would consistently be there for her as long as she allowed him to be. She owed Jared that. The list of school items, the packing, and the overall preparation would just have to wait. If Kim had expected her mother to understand, she was horribly mistaken.

"Kimberly! If you think for one second I'm going to let you waltz up to your boyfriend and agree to marry him you are sorely mistaken!"

"Mom." Kim heard her words become a whine. "Mom, I never said I was going to marry him!" Although, thinking about it, Kim had implied just that. What other way could her mother possibly interpret Kim's resolution to "fix things"? "I just want to make sure he understands."

"This is about you, Kimberly." Her mother's voice rose. "Just you! You have just been given an amazing opportunity, and when Jared's mom called me in tears, I was so incredibly proud that my _eighteen-_year-old daughter had made a choice with her head instead of with her hormones. Don't think I'm going to let you throw it all away!"

"It's not up to you!"

That was most definitely not the proper response. Her mother was right with her understanding of the world. Why should she think that, at eighteen, Kim had any understanding of such complex ideas such as love and marriage? She lived in the normal world – a world where imprinting did not exist and soul mates belonged in fairytales. Besides, Kim was not planning on going to Jared and groveling at his feet begging him to propose again. She wasn't going to promise to be his "little wife" and never have a life of her own, regardless of what her mother thought. She was still the same person. Kim was angry, though. She was angry with adolescent rage.

"Excuse me?" Her mother gasped.

"I'm an adult. I'm eighteen, and if I want to go to Georgetown or marry Jared Cameron, it's up to me! If I want to be a doctor or a housewife, I can do that –"

Kim's mother slapped away her rant – one slap flat against her cheek that stung with the impact and would surely leave a mark on her face.

"I don't want you seeing that boy anymore." Her mother's voice was muted but dangerous. "You might not be grounded anymore, but if you go see him, you will be. Your father has been working so hard so that you can go to this school. We've sacrificed for you, Kimberly, and you have the _nerve_ to tell me what you will and will not do?! Start packing."

With that, she walked out, leaving Kim to rub her stinging cheek and look down at the articles that her mom had bought for her and the envelope of money she still held in her hand.

"I'm sorry, Mm."

She knew that the only person who could probably hear her was Brady; though both boys, most assuredly, had heard the argument.

Kim wanted, more than ever, to talk to Samantha. She needed Samantha to tell her that it was going to be okay, all of it – that Brad's family would be able to move on, and Jared would understand about Georgetown, and her mother would understand about Jared. But Samantha was dead. That was the problem after all. She was dead. It was Kim's fault, and only escaping La Push would change anything.

That was the easy way out; it didn't mean it was the right way.

Kim collapsed and lay against her bed – eyes closed, tears falling. It had all been simpler before – back when Georgetown had been a dream and Jared Cameron hadn't even realized she was alive. If that had been the end of it; if Kim could have graduated that girl; if Jared hadn't imprinted; if they hadn't dated; if Brad hadn't have gotten hurt; if –

It clicked.

Everything clicked in the way it had when Kim had finally understood how to balance equations in tenth grade chemistry. Hard, fast, and painfully, the knowledge came with enough force that she was scrambling around the carpet of her room and yanking her phone from the charger. Kim started to slide through her recent calls until she found Jared's number and pressed the green call button even as her heart raced.

"Kim, what's wrong?" He answered on the third ring.

"It's the Volturi." Now that she had to speak the words, they stuttered their way out. "The Volturi vampire turned Samantha and she killed Brad, and then you guys killed her. Now Claire's missing and Jacob's pack is frantic. They're trying to destroy you – all of you – so you'll be out of the way when they go after their real target, Jared. Their target is the Cullens."

**A/N: Please vote on my poll. It will decide what project I work on next. **


	13. The Attack Plan

**A/N: For any of you who didn't see my profile. I sent this chapter out to be betad too late in the week, so it wasn't ready. I'm very sorry.**

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**Chapter Thirteen: The Attack Plan**

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For the first few minutes following her phone call, Kim didn't shift her position. She sat on the floor, legs crossed beneath her and her cell phone clutched in her hands. She knew that she was right, and that was the reason for the hollow fear resting in the pit of her stomach. Still, she couldn't completely banish the feeling of victory that was tickling at her. It was based completely on the fact that she was right, and the high school nerd in her loved to be right even if she was declaring her own doom and the doom of the entire reservation. That did put a damper on her victory though.

Kim sighed and leaned against the footboard of her bed. Jared had said he'd talk to Sam right before he'd hung up with her. He would, but Kim didn't know if he really believed she was right or if he was just appeasing her hypothesis. It didn't matter to her as long as he presented the idea to Sam.

There was a knock on Kim's open door. She looked up, sure it was her mother. It was Brady, and he had his cell phone in his hand. Austin was beside him, but the younger boy looked anxious to get a video game or a computer; any game would do, for him. Austin belonged to technology, and when he didn't have computer, tablet, DS, or television to focus his eyes on, he looked lost. That was why, when he had nothing in his hands, his eyes darted around with the kind of helplessness that could invoke pity.

"I'm going home," Brady explained, though Kim was not sure why. "Your mom said to ask if you would drive me, since it's late."

Kim nodded, though her eyes were on the phone that Brady was turning over in his hands. He wasn't afraid to walk home by himself, she knew. Sam had called him, and with Kim once again banned from seeing Jared, this was the best escape for Kim to get to Emily's house without her mother becoming suspicious or more upset.

Kim rubbed the cheek that now simply tingled and got up from the floor.

"I'll get the keys."

With a wave goodbye to Austin, Brady followed Kim down the stairs and to the sedan parked in the driveway.

"Put on your seatbelt."

The look Brady gave her bordered on amusement, but he obeyed her with thirteen-year-old submission.

Kim had known Brady since Austin's fifth birthday party when the kindergartener had shown up with a Dragon Ball Z t-shirt and a Hot Wheel track as a gift. Before he'd phased, Kim had known him as Austin's friend. Now he was a pack member, but she still had a hard time separating the shape-shifter from Austin's kindergarten playmate.

"What's going on?" Brady spoke when Kim failed to initiate conversation. "Sam called me and said that you had to come over now, that it was important, but he didn't tell me why. No one ever tells me anything."

"I thought you guys shared a mind." Kim backed out of the driveway, flicking her lights on, and shifted the car into drive.

"It doesn't make a difference. I never get to do anything. I always have to stay home and study," the boy grumbled. "Even Collin gets to do more than me. Sam said it's because he finished his summer reading list."

"Well, reading is important." Kim felt like she was speaking to Austin. "And you have interesting books this year. I read _The Book Thief. _It's beautifully written, and the imagery is amazing really. I was captivated by Mar-"

"Austin's right about you." Brady smiled.

"Huh?"

"He said you were a nerd when I told him you were going to be my tutor."

"Oh." Kim bit her lower lip and made a turn. "He did?"

"Yeah. I don't know why though. Austin's really smart too. He's a math genius. He was the only kid in our math class who can take the cubed root of a number without a calculator."

"It's probably all the video games."

Kim hadn't meant to say it out loud, but she did, and Brady gave a look that begged for more proof. She could tell he was just waiting for her to say that if he played more video games, he'd be better at math. She wasn't planning on helping him out. It was interesting to listen to Brady talk about her brother, though. Growing up, she'd never paid much attention to Austin, and ever since Jared had entered her life, Austin, like Samantha and her parents, had been demoted to a status of secondary importance. It made sense that she'd realize this now that Samantha was gone.

_You don't know what you have until it's gone. _The cliché resonated with her now, and Kim had to push away the feeling of self-pity in favor of her goal – she had to present her hypothesis to Sam and convince him to believe it. That was what her mind should be focused on, and only that.

Kim pulled up in front of Emily's house, undeclared meeting place, and, turning off the ignition, opened the door.

"Hey, Kim," Brady spoke again as the inside lights flashed on.

"Yeah."

"Your face is still red. It'll probably bruise."

Kim ducked back into the car and adjusted the rearview mirror so it was focused on her cheek. Brady was right, but Kim didn't have makeup to hide it. She grabbed a handful of hair and adjusted it so it covered her cheek and therefore left her with one less problem to worry about. She didn't need Jared to notice, not now.

"Thanks."

They were waiting for Kim and Brady inside. Emily sat at the table with a mug of hot tea, and Sam was had put an unopened beer bottle on the counter while he sliced a sandwich in half with a butcher knife. As for Jared, he was lounging on the couch playing some game on his phone, but he shot up when they walked through the door. Emily stood up too – gracefully crossing the room, and with a nod for Brady, she gave Kim a hug. She was also the first to speak, and Kim instantly wished she hadn't.

"What happened to your face?"

"Nothing." Kim brushed Emily's comment away. "It doesn't matter right now," she added in an attempt to redirect the conversation to where she wanted it to go.

It was pointless. Jared was up now, and unlike Emily, who acknowledged her and headed back to her cup, Jared brushed her hair away from her face. Kim swatted his hand away.

"I got in an argument with my mom." The truth came with a sigh, "All right?"

He didn't seem pleased with her answer, but he also seemed to realize she wasn't going to explain more. Jared turned to Brady, and any resolve the thirteen-year-old boy may have had instantly crumbled.

"They were arguing about you." Brady flashed Kim a guilt-ridden stare as he betrayed her.

Jared's eyes widened at Brady's declaration, but as he opened his mouth to speak, Sam came to the rescue.

"I've been thinking about what you told Jared, Kim, and I think you have a point." He motioned for the three of them to come to the table, and he took a seat beside Emily. "Your friend and Claire…they're not random disappearances. When your friend went missing, and then when your friends died, Jared almost lost it. And now that Claire's gone, Quil can hardly function. The Volturi chose their targets specifically, you say, and I agree with you. It's a perfect strategy. Why attack us when they can be more effective by picking up unsuspecting people who have no chance of putting up a fight, and possibly would have a greater effect on sending us into chaos?" Sam paused after he made his statement. He placed his chin on his fist – seeming to have forgotten about his sandwich. "Brady," he spoke up again, "go do your homework."

"Why?" the thirteen year old's voice whined. "Why can't I be here too? I'm a part of this pack too."

"You're a kid." It wasn't Sam who spoke. Paul came walking through the door then. "Sam invited me," he explained as though someone had asked. "Since when is Connweller part of war meetings?" It was a rhetorical question.

"Sam invited me." Kim didn't meet his eyes when she spoke. A lifetime of conflict with Paul was not something that easily disappeared into friendship, even if they had managed an almost civil relationship.

"Kim's the one that figured out what's going on, Paul," Sam explained. "If the Volturi are targeting specific people to send us into chaos, this could get messy very quickly." Sam jumped back into his original statement seemingly forgetting that he previously had asked Brady to leave, or simply not caring any longer. "As a pack, we have the responsibility to protect the tribe. That's our first priority, and if the tribe is in danger because of the Cullens, then we find ourselves with a split loyalty."

"Split?" Paul raised an eyebrow. "What'd you mean split?"

"Renesmee." It was Jared who spoke up. "Jacob imprinted on her. We have to protect her too, but if protecting her means protecting the Cullens, then we're putting Claire at risk. That could cause friction within Jake's pack, especially if he finds out. He might call off the search for Claire."

"Not just Jake's pack," Sam disagreed. "All of us. Jared, if something had happened to Kim instead of her friend, you would have left the pack. I was in your mind, I know, and Paul, you'd forfeit the protection of Renesmee if it means keeping Rachel safe."

Neither boy disagreed. Just then, it started to dawn on Kim exactly what her revelation about the Volturi could mean for the pack.

"Either way, Sam … we can't protect the tribe and the Cullens. Jake will have to be called eventually. Besides, if it's the Volturi that's taken Claire, then five wolves won't be enough to get her back. You know that?"

"I do." Sam ran his fingers along the beer bottle, but he didn't pick it up and drink from it. "But that doesn't matter, not to Quil. He'll search the ends of the earth for Claire and die trying to save her. You both know this." Sam focused his eyes on Paul, and then on Jared, and the three exchanged a silent understanding.

"What if we just take Rensemee and leave the rest of the Cullens to fight on their own?" Brady spoke up.

"You know Jacob won't be all right with that." Jared did not even allow for a pause and Brady's comment to settle before he shot it down. "Paul's right. There's no way we can help the Cullens protect themselves and protect the tribe, and I don't even think adding Jake's pack will be enough."

Kim blocked out Jared's voice as he started to argue with Sam and Paul, and Brady slipped back into sulking. She realized what she knew the rest of them also knew but refused to admit. Paul and Jared were right, there wasn't enough protection to go around, but there was another problem; when it came time to act, Kim was not even sure the wolves would. Sam was right, too; Jared would be more concerned with protecting her than with the greater good. If that meant getting on a plane with her and flying to the sunniest place on earth, he would do that, she knew. And what if Paul also acted against the interest of the group? And Quil? And Jacob? Even Sam might not do what was needed when it came time.

The solution was leering before her eyes like a guillotine – someone was going to have to be sacrificed, and someone was going to die.

Kim raked her fingers through her hair at her newest epiphany and tuned back into a conversation while Jared spoke.

"It's just..something doesn't sit well with me. We said the Volturi was responsible for Kim's friend and for Claire, but what about the murder in the woods? Could that be the Volturi too? It wasn't anyone who was related to us. Besides, remember what the Cullens said about the-" he stopped suddenly as if whatever he was about to say was top secret.

Sam nodded slowly. "I hadn't thought of that," he admitted. "The style didn't match what we're used to, and the Cullens…"

"Maybe they're not related," Emily spoke for the first time. "Isn't it possible that they only happened at the same time coincidentally?"

Sam and Jared seemed to consider this before they both nodded.

"It's possible," Sam consented.

Brady huffed, and everyone – including Kim – turned to him.

"I can't believe the girls are figuring everything out." He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "It's an insult to my masculinity."

Kim couldn't help but smile.

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**A/N: Please vote on my poll**


	14. Night of the Moon

**Chapter Fourteen: Night of the Moon**

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Kim was surrounded by wolves. She stood in the midst of the forest; a grey haze hung over the trees, and the sound of crunching leaves echoed beneath the paws of her protectors. To the right was Jared. His forelegs were flexed for an attack, and his canines bore into the darkness. To her left was Sam. The alpha wolf was calm. His fur blew against the wind, and his eyes gleamed in the moonlight. The others waited behind – Paul and Brady and Collin. They waited beside Jacob and his pack. There were others, smaller wolves that Kim had yet to learn the names of – pups that Sam kept from a fight, but today they also lined up.

Kim was the center of them all, and she peered into the darkness along with the wolves and waited for the enemy to emerge.

It did. The enemy came with indiscernible faces and ruby eyes. They wore dark cloaks and bore Dracula- esque fangs, and there were too many of them for the wolves to defeat. They all knew this.

Suddenly, Kim was no longer alone. Rachel was beside her and Emily on the other side. In Emily's arms she held Claire, and beside Claire stood Renesmee as the vampires approached. They came with unimaginable speed, but none of the wolves started to engage them. They all appeared terror-struck. And then, Kim's remembered. From her pocket she drew the bone knife – a crude weapon of her ancestors, and she took a step forward toward the onslaught.

In that moment, she noticed that only Jared, seemed to regain sense and he launched at the vampires. He was effortlessly tossed aside by one of the red eyes, and as he crumbled he started to shift form back to human. One of the vampires approached him, ready to kill, but none of the other wolves responded. The wolf that was Sam went for Emily, and the wolf that was Paul went for Rachel. Jacob disappeared with Renesmee and Quil with Claire. As for the other wolves, they went into a leaderless panic as Jared gasped on the ground.

Kim's knife glowed in the moonlight, and the vampire lifted Jared into the air – now completely human. He crushed the now weak boy in his arms, and as Jared gasped his last breath, Kim plunged the knife –

Kim woke up gasping for breath, and with tears streaming down her cheeks. They fell like burning memories of her dream. Kim sat up and clutched her covers to her chin. She stayed without moving and for three minutes before she was able to control the rhythm of her heart.

"It's just a dream. It's a just a dream." She chanted the mantra to herself, but she knew the truth. It wasn't _just _a dream. This dream had shown her the fears of her subconscious, and Kim knew that her subconscious was right. If the meeting with Sam had been any indication, then she was right and the wolves cared more about their imprints than their duty. It wasn't a revelation to Kim, but it struck her nonetheless. If they gave in and allowed themselves to be scattered, the Cullens were as good as dead. Kim did not know the Cullens, and she did not particularly care what happened to them, but she knew enough history to know that these things just didn't end. If the Cullens were killed, what would stop the Volturi from going after the wolves, especially considering they were no friends to non-vampires? And even if the Volturi allowed them to live and if the Cullens were dead, Jacob would most assuredly take revenge, even if Renesmee was safe. That would mean a war between the packs, and that kind of war could not possibly end well.

Kim shuddered and climbed out of her bed. She had to get out of this room and out of this house where there was nothing to do except suffocate on the realities they were all faced with. What she needed was to be able to breathe.

When Kim had been in middle school, she'd escaped to the beach with Samantha and Brad whenever any of them were feeling bad. Usually, it was a problem with Samantha's mom, Kim's dad, or Brad's constant borderline grades. Kim did that now. She quickly dressed in a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt, and pulled on socks and a pair of tennis shoes before she rushed out of the house with only her cell phone and her house keys.

The beach wasn't deserted.

Beneath the clouds that covered the glowing moon and the starry sky, Kim could see the shadow of a boy who stood facing the black waves. It was a sight that was only unusual because it was three in the morning, and – since it was three in the morning – Kim made no attempt to approach the stranger.

She did not need to. The figure turned as though he had heard Kim's feet shuffling forward in the sand. The stranger's mouth stretched into a smile that reflected in the moonlight against his white teeth, and he started toward Kim.

"Hi."

As he got closer, Kim recognized Brighton.

"Hi." She nodded in greeting. "What are you doing out here? It's three in the morning."

"I could ask you the same thing."

Kim smiled and felt relief wash over her. While Brighton was not her friend, he had seemed nice enough the last time they had met and appeared far from dangerous.

"I came out here to clear my head," Kim explained. "I haven't been sleeping well."

"Because of your friend?" Brighton took a step closer.

"Something like that." Kim did not offer more information, and Brighton did not press for anything more.

A cold wind swept Kim's hair, and it slapped Brighton in the face. The boy looked momentarily stunned, but he quickly recovered.

"Sorry." She brushed her hair behind her ears and instinctively she rubbed Brighton's face before quickly moving away her hand.

"What's that smell?" Brighton grabbed her hand, his long nails digging into her palm. "I've smelled it everywhere." He released her hand and took a step back. "It's almost human-like, but there's something off about it."

This time, Kim stepped back. There was only one smell he could have picked up, and he, most assuredly, was not human if that was the case.

A moment after the thought crossed her mind, Brighton doubled over in pain.

"Are you okay?"

She placed her hand on his shoulder and leaned over the boy who looked to be in danger of convulsing. His blue eyes burned up at her and then appeared to stretch into slits, and when he opened his mouth, as if to speak, his perfect teeth had elongated into fangs.

Kim stumbled back, falling into the sand and caught view of the moon which now bore down on her as the grey clouds drifted away from it.

"Werewolf." She whispered the word like a prayer. "Impossible." But it wasn't; she knew that. The Cullens were vampires and her boyfriend was a shape-shifter; last year they had discovered that true werewolves did exist, and here was one shifting before her.

Kim scrambled to her feet and started to run. She doubted she was fast enough, but adrenaline stopped her from giving in to that fate. Her heart pounded and her legs rose to her chest as she raced through the sand not knowing where she should go.

A howl pierced the night, and Kim turned to see Brighton coming after her. The quick glance was a second too long, and as fear started in her chest, her ankle twisted and she fell. On the ground, in too much pain to move, Kim had a clear view of the creature that approached her.

She recognized Brighton behind the wolf. His blue eyes, though stretched and slanted on his face, were still undeniably his. His golden brown hair had grown across his entire face and the elongated snout that had once been his nose. His jagged nails had become claws against the hair that grew on his hands, and in spite of the fact that he ran on two legs, there was nothing human about the speed with which he got to Kim.

Kim shuffled back, but the wolf kept coming. She kicked out the foot that still seemed to work, and it collided with his chest. It had no effect, except to stun Brighton, but in that moment the wolf's head turned from Kim and to the forest as if sensing a more desirable presence. In another instant, he was gone – dashing toward the forest so fast that he was a blur in the distance - before Kim could register what had just happened.

As for Kim, she stayed sitting in the sand with her twisted ankle until she was able to push herself to a standing position, and started to hobble away.


	15. Lycanthrope

**Chapter Fifteen: Lycanthrope**

* * *

Emily's door was locked, so Kim started to pound on it. She was almost positive the pack was out, but Kim couldn't go home right now even if it meant risking being grounded again; Emily was the only option.

The door opened. Emily stood with a cup of coffee in her hand and a look of disapproval on her face as she let Kim in.

"What in the world happened to you? Why are you limping?"

"I fell." Kim leaned against the door and rubbed the sweat from her forehead. "I…I saw a werewolf! A real werewolf, and…" she faded out.

Even though it was a little after three in the morning, Emily's house was not deserted. Sue Clearwater and Billy Black both sat in Emily's living room with cups of coffee in their hands. They both stared at Kim with shock on their faces. Kim, though, was not sure if it was because she'd shown up at three in the morning yelling about werewolves, or if they were just surprised to see her knowing that the last time they had seen her she'd "turned down" Jared's proposal.

Emily, however, gave a little smile as she noticed Kim's realization and pulled her further into the room.

"Sit down, I'll get some ice for your ankle, then you can tell me everything."

Emily motioned Kim to the couch, and she sat opposite of the two council members who continued to stare at her until Emily came back with a bag of ice. Kim propped her foot up on the footstool and laid the ice on top of it as Emily took a seat beside her.

"Okay, Kim, tell us everything."

With a nervous look at Sue and Billy, Kim sighed and started to tell her story.

As she spoke about what had happened, Kim recalled the way Brighton's face had morphed under the glare of the moon and what Emily had said about the killings in the woods. Kim, however, was most concerned about the reason that Brighton had turned and left.

"It must be killed." Billy spoke up when Kim had finished. "The creature is a threat to the protection of the reservation, and it lacks control. It can't be allowed to live."

Sue nodded in agreement, and Emily knew her place, so she didn't speak.

"I think it's looking for something." Kim didn't know her place, she was very aware of this fact. "Bri- the werewolf disappeared as though it sensed another presence. I think it might leave on its own." She brushed her hair behind her ears, her old nervous habit.

This was different than trying to convince Sam; Kim knew that, so she expected what came next.

Billy's eyes lit as if they had been touched by a match.

"And how many lives are you willing to risk while you test your hypothesis!" Spittle flew from his mouth. "Maybe your werewolf is looking for something, but it is also killing people. Is that okay with you?"

If Billy could have hopped out of his wheelchair, Kim was sure he would have. He was _that_ angry. He was right in the most basic sense of the word. Any utilitarian would agree that his death was the only option, but Kim had never liked philosophy. Brighton hadn't lied about being an orphan and what he'd shared with her wasn't pity for her friends' deaths. He'd empathized with her, and in-spite of everything else, it hurt Kim to think of this near stranger's possible death.

"Emily," Sue Clearwater spoke up. "Has Sam told you anything about the Children of the Moon? Did the Cullens find anything out?"

Emily sighed as she shook her head. "Not really, Sue. There was a little information, but most were just legends that the Cullens aren't exactly familiar with. They're almost extinct and-"

"I can prove my hypothesis." Kim interrupted Emily with unapologetic fervor. "If I can prove that he's only dangerous at certain times and that he's going to leave…if I can do that, will you let him live?"

Billy continued to stare at her, but Sue leaned forward with slight curiosity etched on her face.

"And how would you do that?"

"A girl from my school…her father is writing a dissertation on Quileute legends."

"The O'Donnells." Sue said as she nodded, remembering.

"Well, he's most interested in the legends about the wolves. I think he may have also stumbled across these Children of the Moon."

"More theories," Billy grumbled. "Besides, the decision is up to Sam."

"Not really, sir." Kim went the polite route. "Sam doesn't know about this, and you do. I know you don't trust me, but I've been right before."

Sue's mouth dropped open and Emily gave a little smile.

"She's right," Emily admitted, after a moment. "Her last hypothesis was correct. Sam trusts her judgment-"

"That's because he spends too much time with Jared." Billy pinched the bridge of his nose. "We won't make any plans tonight one way or another. I'm going to call your parents, Kimberly, and let them know you're here before they ground you again." He gave her a pointed look as if to remind her that Old Quil had not rescued her just so that she could be thrown back into penitentiary.

As Billy rolled away, Emily excused herself to check and see if Sam was headed back leaving Kim with just Sue.

The older woman viewed Kim with eyes that seemed to try and read her mind.

"How are you?"

"I'm good?" Kim knew that was not what the woman wanted to know. "And you?"

"We were all so excited when you finished top of your class." The woman did not smile.

Kim was not sure who Sue meant by "we" and she made no effort to ask.

"Umm … thank you."

"So you're going to Georgetown, all the way in D.C."

There. Sue had gotten to her point. A visible frown stretched across her face.

"Yes, ma'am." The formality seemed necessary. "I've wanted to go there for a long time. We're all so excited."

By "We", Kim meant her family and her dead best friends, but the sardonic inflection was enough to make a smirk flash on Sue's face for slightly less than a second.

"You're a smart girl," Sue said after a moment. "We need smart girls."

This time Kim knew not to respond lest she fall into guilt inflicted by this council member.

Sam did not return, so Kim spent the night on Emily's couch with a promise that in the morning her ankle would be all better. Emily, who was used to overnight guests handed her a blanket from the closet and said that she, at least, would keep Kim's sighting under wraps.

Kim woke up the next morning to the scent of bacon and the glare of the sun in her eyes. Billy and Sue were already eating, and Emily had just finished pouring herself a glass of orange juice.

"Good morning, Kimberly." Billy greeted her first when she sat up. He looked to be in a better mood than he had been the night before, and Kim guessed that whatever she'd interrupted had been pretty important. She guessed it had had something to do with the possibility of a new war.  
"It's daytime, so if you're right about seeing a real werewolf then you won't be in danger and neither should anyone else. Sue and I have agreed to give you until the sun sets to find out as much as you can so we are able to make a judgment. In the absence of an Alpha, that decision is being made by us. Do you agree to abide by that stipulation, Kimberly?"

Kim nodded. It wasn't ideal, but it was all she had at the moment. She would make it work. "Yes, sir."

"Very well."

Leaping off the couch, Kim grabbed her shoes and ignored Emily's comments about eating and her bed head.

"You'll make a good mother some day, Emily." Kim smiled as she shut the door behind her.

The O'Donnels didn't live far enough away from Emily for her to be unable to walk the distance, but as Kim started the walk she realized that borrowing someone's car would have been a better option.

She didn't end up needing to start back. The moment after she had finished her thought, a light blue flat bed truck pulled up beside her and the door swung open, but there was no one in the driver's seat.

In the next second, Kim was being pushed up and into the passenger's seat.

"We have a lot to talk about."

* * *

**A/N: If you haven't already, vote on my poll! **


	16. The Story

**Chapter Sixteen: The Story**

* * *

Billy Black wins round one! The elder's arm pumped the air in triumph and the reservation cheered. Kim leaned against the ropes of the boxing ring with fire in her eyes as the taste of defeat stank in her mouth.

In reality, the taste of defeat was a poorly decorated hotel room with flower sheets and seventies wallpaper. Kim sat on one of the queen beds with her feet folded beneath her. She wrapped her hands around the coke bottle that Brighton had retrieved from the vending machine, but Kim had not drunk it. Instead had her eyes fixed on the boy.

Brighton sat opposite of her. His feet rested on the carpet and, five minutes before, he had stopped smiling. Now his face was fixed in a glare, and he looked as though he wanted to attack her, but he knew she was too important for that to happen.

"You won't tell me?!" He gasped in pure shock. "I've been living five hundred years hunting vampires and now I'm being stopped by an eighteen year old girl!" He looked to the ceiling, a clear indication that he wasn't addressing her anymore.

"Give me my phone." Kim spoke up.

"What?" Brighton's mouth fell open. "I like you, Kim, I do, but I don't trust you...not in a situation like this."

Kim sighed. Fear was something she needed to learn, but she was remedial in the field.

"Just give me my phone, Brighton." This time she held out her hand. "I don't trust you either, but I'll help you anyway."

Brighton stared at her, as if he was not sure whether to believe her or not, and then he pulled her cell phone out of his pocket.

"You're not going to call your boyfriend, are you?"

"No. I'm going to call my pack leader."

Sam was not pleased. When he picked up the phone, Sam answered as someone who already knew the details. He didn't even bother grumbling a hello or asking who it was.

"You're going to be the death of me, Kim," was the way he greeted her.

In the background, Kim could hear the noise of the pack.

"I need your help." She didn't explain further as Brighton breathed down her neck. "I have a friend who needs your help." Kim changed her statement as she considered the implications. "He wants to talk to you, and…anyway, is that okay?"

There was a sigh on the other line, but Sam did not sound worried, at least. The background noise had silenced, so Kim guessed everyone in Emily's house was straining to hear the conversation.

"All right, Kim where are you? I'll send Jar—"

"No!" Her coke bottle fell and bounced off the carpet. "No, I'll meet you at Emily's."

There was a short silence, and then Sam spoke again.

"Kim, is this friend of yours dangerous?"

Kim sent a look at Brighton who was shaking his head, and Kim recalled the story he had told her about his past. Was he dangerous? Oh, most definitely.

"Not right now." Kim raked her fingers through her hair. "Just trust me, Sam." She hung up before he could press her, and reached down for her coke bottle. "Are you ready, Brighton?"

His eyes narrowed. "You're leading me into a trap, aren't you?"

"You over estimate me, Maslow. I'm getting you the answer you want, and as long as you don't attack anyone, no one will attack you."

That was as much of a truth as Kim knew to tell him. As long as Emily was actually there, Emily's house was the safest place for Brighton. Kim understood imprinting well enough to know that Sam wouldn't put Emily in danger over the presence of a single werewolf that had no strength in the sunlight.

When Kim and Brighton pulled into Emily's driveway, Sam was waiting outside with Paul and Jared. Brighton got out of the truck first and opened Kim's door. As she stepped onto the ground, she gave a little wave and noticed that Paul alone seemed humored with the situation.

"They're going to attack." Brighton took a step back.

Kim finally smiled. "Not like that, they're not."

This time, she grabbed Brighton's wrist and started to walk forward. Brighton stumbled after her as though he'd once again turned into the boy Kim had met on the beach, and he nodded to the three people who were waiting.

"I'm Brighton Maslow," he introduced himself. "I wanted to…" he faded out "I came to La Push…let me tell you about myself." He finally decided on his route. "May I?"

Sam nodded without moving.

"You might want to sit down," Brighton suggested.

Sam did. He crossed his legs and sat on the grass. His palms rested on his knees and his face was blank. Jared and Paul followed suit, and if it had not been for the jeans and the t-shirts, Kim would have thought they were in some reenactment of the red man and the pale faces.

Brighton looked at Kim for direction, and she hit the ground too, and rested her chin in her hands. Brighton did likewise, only he put his hands in his lap and started to play with them. As he spoke, he kept his eyes fixated on them.

"I was born in 1508," he began the story that he had told Kim in the hotel, "in Florence. I had a different name back then, and I lived with my family. We numbered fourteen in all. We lived in a time when people believed in vampires and that's where the superstitions came from. The garlic, the crosses, the holy water…they were all ways that we believed would protect us. We didn't know they didn't work. Not then.

"One day, a vampire came to our home. It slaughtered my entire family, and only I escaped. It wasn't because of any skill of mine. I simply wasn't at the family home when it attacked, but in the days after, our town whispered about the red eyed demon called Felix. Accused of bringing bad luck, I left both my town, and Florence, and I eventually left Italy. I changed my name, and settled in Bavaria.

"I was nineteen years old when I started to work as an apprentice to a silver smith, and I was safe, or so I thought. That's when I began to hear the stories. In my home, people had whispered about vampires, but here they spoke of the Children of the Moon, the lycanthrope. They were creatures controlled by the moon. They were compelled by a full moon to change, and could shift whenever night fell and the moon was present. Nothing could kill them, save the bite of a vampire and during the day, they dwelled among people seeking their victims.

"I knew to believe the stories, but I trusted that I was safe. I trusted that these things couldn't happen twice. I was wrong. One night, a night of a full moon, there was a howl, and the men of the town grabbed for pitchforks and fire. The villagers knew an attack was coming, and they also knew they didn't have a chance, but the men prepared to engage the wolves anyway hoping they could protect the town.

"Werewolves don't attack in packs, at least not normally, but mates hunt together. This case was no different. Two wolves emerged, their eyes were crazed, and they attacked without direction. The men ran and I ran with them, but the male bit me and I collapsed.

"I woke up alone, and I've been this way ever since. Like all werewolves, I change with the full moon, and I have no ability to control it. However, the weaker the moon, the more control I have over my shifting, and the more control I have as a werewolf.

"The deaths in the woods… that was me. I shifted to hunt, and I encountered humans, but I didn't have enough control to stop myself from attacking them. It was foolish of me to shift so close to a full moon." Brighton finally stopped. He said nothing about last night's encounter as he had promised Kim, and finally looked up to meet Sam's eyes.

Sam, who had not changed his stance or his expression the entire time, allowed a slight tilt of a frown to appear on his face.

"Why are you telling us this?" Sam asked.

Brighton looked at Kim, as if deciding whether or not he wanted to betray her confidence.

"When I became this, I decided to treat my curse as a gift. I have dedicated my life to hunting and killing vampires until I find the one who killed my family. While I was abroad, I caught wind that the Volturi were coming to Washington. I knew that the vampire Felix would be with them, so I came too. What I noticed, though, was that here there is a smell in the air. It's not the way vampires smell, and it's not the way humans smell. It's different. I also realized that the vampires here are strange. What I mean is…last night I shifted, and I sensed a vampire, so I went after it. It escaped me, but I noticed that it had gold eyes. I'm here because I think you know the answers to my questions, both of them."

This time, Brighton spoke with more confidence.

Sam nodded once, and he looked at Kim.

"Kim, go inside."

"No!" Brighton shot up.

Kim thought about telling him that it was fine, and that he was going to be safe. That all Sam was going to do was figure out how much he wanted to tell this stranger, or if he was going to tell him anything at all. But then, Kim noticed his stance. Brighton wasn't trying to protect himself, he was guarding Kim. She didn't know much about these Children of the Moon, but Kim had watched Animal Planet before Austin had fallen into his video game, and she noticed the way that Jared was shaking, so she knew that Jared knew as well.

"She can't leave," Brighton continued. "I've claimed her. She is going to be my mate."

"Jared!" Sam yelled, but it was too late.

Kim jumped out of the way as Jared shifted and pinned Brighton to the ground in one expert tackle. His massive paws pressed against the boy's wrists, his claws curling into the ground, and he let out a growl that caused Kim to shuffle backwards.

"Well, our cover is blown," Paul said, chuckling.

* * *

**A/N: Chapter Seventeen probably won't be up for two weeks instead of one. Sorry, but if I'll try to post two chapters that week to make up for it. Thanks for understanding. **


	17. The Alliance

**A/N: This is the revised version of Chpt. 17. Chapter 18 won't be uploaded until I'm finished with my finals. I sent it off to the beta today.**

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen: The Alliance**

"Uggh…"

Brighton groaned as he sat up, his sheets falling away. Kim pulled the icepack away from his face and took in the sight of him. The right side of Brighton's face was swollen from where Jared's claws had ripped at his cheek, and the swelling had left his eye buried in folds of skin.

"You're awake." It was the only thing Kim could think to say. "I was worried about you."

Worried was probably not the right word. Kim had been fairly certain Brighton was dead when Sam managed to coax Jared off of the screaming teenager. Coax, not order, because Kim noticed that Sam held more sympathy for the aggressor in that situation. What she'd forgotten, of course, was that the supernatural didn't heal like mortals, and that included Brighton.

"I'm fine." He took the icepack out of Kim's hand, and clamped it back against his face. "I mean, I will be as soon as the moon comes out." Brighton gave a half-smile, and Kim was sure his teeth were sharper than they had been earlier.

Kim didn't smile back or tell him that when Sam had carried him into the house he'd been a ruined mess of riddled flesh. "Good, I'll go let Emily know," she said, instead. And she left the room before he could say anything else.

Emily sat at the kitchen table with her hands folded and her eyes on Sam, Jared, and Paul outside who were huddled in a discussion. When Kim walked in the room, she looked up.

"He's an idiot." Kim sat down across from Emily at the table and nibbled at a muffin from the plate Emily pushed over to her. "I mean, he's such a colossal idiot."

Jared turned to look through the window as if he'd heard Kim talking about him.

"So you're not forgiving him this time?" Emily gave a little smile, clearly not believing her.

"I'm not. I'll never talk to him again."

Kim stuffed the muffin in her mouth, and then started to drink milk as she attempted to break down the solid that had puffed her cheeks.

"I mean, really," she finally managed to get out the words. "What's with all this claiming stuff, anyway? I can't even say it's a trait of our inherent animal nature, and it's not a trait of the supernatural, either. It's a male thing, a flaw." She took another sip and continued, "And yet they have the nerve to call us the weaker sex."

"How is Brighton?"

"He'll be fine." Kim sighed. A teensy part of her wanted him not to be fine. If he wasn't fine, then maybe Jared would at least feel guilty. The rational part of her mind, however, was just relieved that her almost friend hadn't been maimed.

Kim reached to grab another muffin, but Emily moved the plate from her reach.

"When do we not eat, Kim?"

"When we're angry, bored, sad, or any other feeling except hungry," Kim quoted the weight loss mantra. "But I didn't eat breakfast this morning, or lunch."

With that, Emily consented and allowed her one more muffin with instructions to eat it slowly.

"Ugh…" For the second time, Brighton groaned his way into Kim's consciousness as he stumbled into the room and took a seat at the table beside Kim. "I changed my mind. I can't wait for the moon. Do you have an aspirin?"

Emily nodded and left the room for the medicine cabinet.

"I didn't know." Brighton started to speak as soon as Emily was gone.

"Know what?"

"That your boyfriend was a psychopathic, human-wolf hybrid." It was almost an apology.

"Oh." Kim shrugged. "How were you supposed to? It's a secret, or…it was. No thanks to the psychopathic, human-wolf hybrid."

Brighton smiled.

"I am sorry," Kim started. "He's…there's really no excuse."

"Nah," Brighton waved away her apology. "I've gotten in worse scrapes. It's close to a full moon, so…for me it's like drinking alcohol. The closer to the moon, the drunker I get, and less judgment I have. So I do and say stupid things. It's my fault." He stuck out his hand. "Can we be friends again?"

Kim nodded and shook his hand. "I could use a friend."

The door opened and Sam came in first with a smirking Paul behind him. Jared was the last to enter, overly comfortably in Sam's clothes. When he saw Kim and Brighton, he looked about ready to phase again, but instead he slumped over and sat where Emily had been.

"She says she's not going to forgive you," Emily explained as she walked back in the room, handing Brighton a bottle of pills. "So, you might as well give up now."

Kim shot Emily a glare, and didn't respond to Jared's shocked look.

"You feeling any better?" Sam joined them at the table. Kim was sure he spoke more out of politeness than actual care for Brighton's condition.

Brighton nodded.

Kim went back to her muffin as Sam led Brighton outside for the conversation he'd been itching to have. Paul joined them, but Jared didn't move from his seat.

"Kim." Jared spoke. "I'm sorry I upset you."

"Tell Jared I'm never speaking to him. In fact, I'm giving up on men completely. I'll be single forever." Kim took another bite into her muffin, and Emily bit her lip to keep from laughing. She didn't believe Kim, that much was a fact.

"I'm sorry." He tried again. "I went a little overboard. I was just trying to defend your honor."

As if she hadn't realized that Jared was being completely serious, Emily burst out laughing.

"My honor?" Kim ignored Emily. She was too shocked to remember her pervious statement. "Do you hear yourself? You understand that this is the twenty-first century, right?"

"I said I was sorry." He bowed his head, like a child in trouble, and inhaled two muffins.

"He could've died."

"He's fine, Kim."

"That's not the point!" She could feel the anger building. No, she meant it this time; Kim was not going to forgive him. "You broke Brad's jaw because he danced with me in junior year. My best friend danced with me, so you broke his jaw."

"I didn't have control. I'd just ph-"

"You helped kill Samantha."

"I was trying to pro-"

"That's my point, Jared." Her voice fell this time, and she met his desperate eyes. "I'm my own person, and sometimes I do stupid things, I get that, but you're out of control. This is why I'm going to Georgetown, Jared. I have to get away from you, and from all of this."

He didn't start to shake. He didn't even look angry. Instead, a look of utter hopelessness flashed across his face.

"Kim!" Emily gasped her realization.

"I want to help."

Sam, Paul, and Brighton reentered the house. Brighton, seemingly caught somewhat up to speed, sent a pleading look at Sam as he spoke.

"No," Sam said again.

"The Volturi are coming here and Felix will be with them. I want to join you to fight them." Brighton tried again.

"I can't allow that," Sam spoke again. "You're dangerous, and a liability. The Volturi doesn't respect treaties with werewolves. We barely got out last time with a loophole, but you…you are a real werewolf. We could all be destroyed because of you."

"What's wrong with him?"

Paul turned to Emily and Kim, effectively blocking out the debate that was transpiring between Brighton and Sam. He sauntered over and took a seat beside Jared.

"You look like you just got your heart broken."

No one answered. Jared was staring at the table, and Emily was staring at Kim. For once, her eyes weren't kind.

"I'm leaving." Kim announced, scraping back her chair.

"Kim," Emily started again.

"I'm going home."

Paul's eyes widened, still not understanding.

"What happened?" he asked again.

"She…" Jared grasped for the next word. "…broke up with me."

Sam and Brighton's conversation ended with Jared's statement, and the only sound was Kim's chair as she pushed it back under the table, and turned as though to leave the house.

"Do you mean that, Kim?" Sam spoke, wanting her verbal affirmation before he accepted anything.

She didn't mean it. Not really. She was angry, and more than a little frustrated. She wanted to get away from Jared and the oncoming war, but she didn't think she wanted to be away from him forever. Forever was a long time not to see the boy she'd been in love with since tenth grade. Besides, he was more than a little hurt. She was breaking him. He was the one who was tied to her; he couldn't be free. It wasn't fair, though. Why should she have to put up with aggression like that? Sure, he'd never hurt her, but did that matter anymore? Brad and Brighton. Sure, the werewolf had been stupid, but he'd overreacted no matter what Brighton said. As for Brad, his death was making Kim feel more and more guilty about what had happened to him. Kim had told her mom she needed closure with Jared one way or the other, but she wasn't sure this was the closure she wanted. In fact, she wasn't sure of anything except her anger and her doubt. Those were not good emotions to make a decision on.

"Jared," she didn't turn to face him. "I'm sorry. This isn't about you or Brad, really. I'm going to Georgetown, and you can't come with me. You have to understand that no matter how much you want to deny it. In the end, I can't believe that we're going to have a forever."

Kim kept walking to the door, not daring to turn around and face him. She didn't have the confidence to see his face or the resolve to keep walking if she did. There was an air of finality about her walk to the door, and she was only aware of herself, the doorknob, and the fact that if she walked out she might never come back in.

"We have to talk."

The door flew open moments before Kim reached it. Jacob Black stood in the doorway with Leah and Seth flanking him.

"And it can't wait."

00

"You need to talk to him, Kim."

"I can't."

"This isn't about you."

"Yes it is."

"No, Kim it's not."

Sam was in Kim's bedroom, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that, exactly. Neither was her mother, but so far the woman hadn't burst in to make a comment about Jared's friend sitting on Kim's bed.

"It's not like he's going to stop phasing because of me."

"He will and you know it. You're not convincing anyone by lying to yourself."

"I don't exactly understand what you want me to do."

"I want you to talk to him."

"Because of the war?"

"Because he's my friend."

Guilt. So that was the way he wanted to play this. Kim collapsed back on her bed and reached for her pillow. She wondered if she could smother herself. She didn't want to die, she just wanted to do it long enough so that her breath stopped and she could be utterly and completely alone. Sam was here, surely he could do CPR. Morbidity pushed away, Kim settled for screaming into the pillow.

"My phone is by the mirror." She mumbled it into the pillow, but a moment later she felt something bounce onto the bed.

Kim sat up and, grabbing at her phone, drafted a text message: _Sry. Let's talk. Your house. 30 min._

Sam smiled when she sent it off, but Kim just wanted to scream again. One scream and she'd be away from all of this and on the other side of the country. She wasn't sure when she'd become so selfish.

"Kim," Sam didn't look like he was about to leave. "There's something else."

"What?"

Kim shifted so that her pillow was in her lap, and her text messages in her line of vision. Sam sighed, raking his fingers through his dark hair, as a frown set across his face.

"It's about Jake..."

Sam glossed over the basics. Jacob had started to speak once Kim left. He told them that his pack had been searching for Claire and that Quil and Embry were still out there, but the three of them had come back when they realized the Volturi were coming for the Cullens. It caused a fracture, weighing the fate of Renesmee versus that of Claire, but it had to be done. He met with the Cullens and learned that Alice knew little. Because of the involvement of Renesmee and the wolves, she couldn't see much. What the Cullens did know, they learned from their friends and their own speculation.

"Volterra is beginning to crumble," Sam explained. "Other vampires have heard about what happened when they faced the Cullens, and the power of the Volturi is waning. This is why the Volturi is coming back. They want to eradicate the Cullens so that they can once again secure power. They don't care about the wolves, but if the wolves interfere they will also be destroyed.

"Jake thinks, as we do, that taking Claire was the way the Volturi decided to send a message, but he refuses to abandon the Cullens to fight on their own. He fears, though, that Quil won't fight willingly. Jake also will not save just Renesmee while he abandons the rest of the Cullens. On this, I agree. If we take Renesmee then we put ourselves in danger. If the Volturi want the Cullens dead, they want all of them dead."

"So what are you going to do?" Kim's voice was hollow.

"It's not about me, anymore, Kim. There aren't enough of us willing to go to war. Paul and Jared have already said they won't fight. Jacob doesn't think Quil will fight, and I'm not sure they're wrong. It's best for the tribe if we don't engage in a war with the Volturi."

"The Cullens can't beat them on their own. Jacob, Seth, and Leah, they'll die."

"I know." Sam sighed. "You may think that this isn't about you, Kim, but what's to say you're not next. I can't make a decision until I've thought about everything."

"What does Emily say?"

"She doesn't."

"So you're asking me?" This whole 'active role in the pack' thing was not what Kim had signed up for, but then she hadn't signed up for anything, really.

Sam nodded.

"Do what you think is right?" She shrugged. Kim made good grades, but she didn't know anything about giving people advice.

Her phone rang.

"Jared?" Sam guessed.

Kim shook her head as she stared down at her phone.

"It's Paul. Hello."

"Is Sam with you, Connweller?"

"Yes."

"Then tell him this. Quil and Embry just showed up. Claire's with them. Apparently the bloodsuckers got smart."

Her phone shut off as Paul hung up on her.

"They didn't get smart," Sam explained.

He didn't need to. Kim understood. They were making a point. "Here's one of yours, see how we left her alone. Stay out of our business, and we'll leave you alone too. We are merciful."

Kim met Sam's eyes. "I'm glad I'm not you." It was the only thing she could think to say.

Her phone buzzed. _New Message_.

"Now it's Jared."


	18. The Countdown

**Chapter Eighteen: The Countdown**

* * *

Jared's room had a bed, and that was really the only thing Kim was certain of. Maybe there had been a desk at one time, but beneath the stacks of video games and old socks, she couldn't be sure. There wasn't a floor either because apparently he still played with Hot Wheels. Race tracks were set up all around his bed and they served as hangers for his dirty clothes. Kim remembered why he always came to her house, or why they always stayed downstairs in his.

"You really haven't cleaned your bedroom since you were ten years old."

"I know where everything is." He was smiling. His smile was so wide that at first Kim had wondered if he knew that their entire world was falling apart. He did, but she was here, so he didn't care. Of course.

"Let's talk." Kim hopped over the tracks and crashed onto his bed which looked as though his mom had made it up five minutes before, but then he didn't really sleep much, so maybe it made sense to have such a neat bed. "...About the Volturi."

"I won't defend the Cullens, Kim." He didn't wait. "I know I haven't done anything right, and I know you're still angry with me, but I have to protect you, and this way I can do so without-"

"If it comes down to it, you won't have a choice." Kim thought of Sam and how troubled he'd seemed at the thought of making Jared and Paul fight, but she also knew that it was his responsibility to be a leader. Sam would be one, if he had to. "Besides," she continued, "I'm leaving. If you were smart you wouldn't bother to protect me. You'd let what's going to happen just happen, and if I died you would go and get yourself a new girlfriend."

He jumped up. His feet landed on one of the Hot Wheels tracks, crushing it beneath him.

"I'd never...how could you even think that? I love you."

His words were unneeded. Kim could see her offence clearly in his eyes. No, she'd done more than offended him. She'd questioned his devotion to her.

"Sorry."

It was the second time she'd said it to him in the past hour. But what was there left to say, really? Hadn't their whole relationship been leading up to an apology? Maybe not. Maybe her tenth grade romantic self had really meant forever when she had scribbled _Mrs. Kimberly Cameron_ into her diary. Maybe the recently graduated cynic was the one who was wrong. Kim wasn't sure. What she did know was that she didn't have time to figure it out anymore.

"_You'll do what's right for you_" the woman on the bus had said, but Kim didn't know. She was eighteen years old. How was she supposed to know what was right for her, or for anyone? Didn't eighteen mean she didn't have to know? Didn't it mean she could mess up again and again and a-?

_Who are you lying to?_ The little voice popped in her head. _You've only ever wanted two things; Jared and Georgetown. What changed?_

"...I'll always protect you."

She missed the first part of what he'd said, but she doubted it mattered. He was most likely speaking in circles, anyway. She interrupted.

"What do you know about wolves, Jared. Real wolves."

"Huh?"

"Wolves mark their territory, and if another wolf tries to encroach on that territory, the original wolf will defend it."

A blank look drifted across Jared's face, but this was elementary school stuff. She wasn't going to let him get off this time.

"The Culllens," she continued, "claimed a territory. The Volturi come. What are they going to do?"

"Kim-"

"They're going to defend it. And what happens when the Cullens are killed?"

"Kim-"

"There's no one left. The Cullens are destroyed so someone else settles. And if these vampires aren't friendly vampires then we'll all be dead anyway."

"Kim-"

"My point is that if you want to protect me, you have to be willing to fight with them. You have to do what Sam says."

"Kimberly!"

Had he ever called her that before? Only her parents called her Kimberly and maybe some family friends. To everyone else she was just Kim, including Jared.

"What?"

"It's my turn. Tell me the truth, okay, and I won't bother you about it anymore. What happens at the end of summer?"

She thought about brushing him off knowing very well that she'd been doing that for too long. He deserved an answer just like everyone else in Kim's life that was in limbo because of her indecisiveness. The truth: _Georgetown _and _Jared, _she didn't want anything else, she knew that much. But could she really say that?

"I leave." She met his eyes. "I get on a plane and I fly away, and you stay here where you belong."

"Because I'm uncontrollable."

"Because it's not about you, Jared. When I was a kid, my dad got a raise. It wasn't much, but he decided it was enough to go on vacation. So we went to D.C. When I saw Georgetown, I fell in love." Kim shifted her eyes to her hands. "In tenth grade, you saved my life, and I fell in love again. Pretty pathetic, right? A school I didn't have a chance of getting into and a boy who didn't know my name. I never thought I'd have to choose."

"So you choose your first love." His voice was bitter.

Kim shook her head. "My turn. If I go away until December, what will happen to you?"

"I'll phase, and I won't turn back." His voice was flat. "I'll follow you, and if you don't want me near you then I'll hide where you can't see me."

Kim reached forward and slapped the back of his head. It was something Samantha had done to her in middle school. Something she did when Kim said something stupid.

"You may think that sounds romantic, but it's really just creepy." She leaned back, again. "I'm selfish, I know that. I want to marry you, but I want to get out of college first. Three months, Jared."

"You'll leave again."

Kim nodded. "Wouldn't it be easier for you if we gave up on forever?"

"No."

It was an automatic answer that was so confident in its rightness it caught Kim off guard.

"You're going to Georgetown, and you'll come back, and you'll leave again, and I can't come with you." He repeated it slowly, like a child, as if by digesting each word he could understand her. "But you love me, and you want to marry me." A smile started to creep across his face. "When I'm away from you, I go crazy. My mind starts to calculate every possible thing that could happen to you. It's like OCD, you know? I have an obsession, you. And it's followed by a compulsion, to check on you, and if I don't perform that compulsion, I lose my mind."

"You got something right." She couldn't help but smile back. "You did pay attention in psychology."

He shook his head. "You read that part out loud to me."

"You were sleeping, Jared. I read it, but you weren't awake."

"How could I sleep while you were talking? If I did that, I'd be missing the sound of your voice."

Kim couldn't help it, she snorted. "That's so corny."

Jared shifted so that he sat beside her, and he pulled her closer to him.

"I love you, Kim, and I'll always want to marry you. I'll always love you no matter what. You know that."

"But I'm leaving, and you can't stand for me to be away, remember?"

"I know." His fingers started through her hair. "But I want you to be happy. That's the most important thing to me. If I knew you were happy...that you were safe...maybe I could handle the pain of you being away."

"So what, you want me to call you every day?" Her joke fell flat.

Her biggest fear had been Jared. This whole time she'd been terrified that he wouldn't be able to go on without her, and now a solution lay before them. It was simple, really. Call her boyfriend once a day; send a text, or video chat. Let him know she was okay. There was really no reason for her not to agree.

There was something else, though. There was a gnawing ache in the pit of her stomach as she thought of going away and leaving him. Would she be okay? It was too early for homesickness, but what if it came while she was alone in a city full of strangers?

"If you ever need me, I'll come, Kim." His eyes were earnest as he met hers. "And as long as you're okay, I'll wait for you."

Kim hugged him, burying her face in his neck.

"For how long?" She stayed there with her face buried and her speech muffled. "Will you wait four years to marry me? Six? Ten?

"Yes." He pulled her away from him so that their eyes met once again, his hands wrapped around her shoulders. "If it's what you want."

"I want you to do what Sam says." Kim remembered her original point. "I want you to fight with him, if he asks."

Jared waited a moment as if he wanted to make sure she meant it. "As you wish."

He went to kiss her, but Kim pushed him away.

"That's cheating. You can't quote movies you haven't seen."

"Three times," he argued. "My mom made me watch it with her three times. I fell asleep each time, but I saw that much."

This time he didn't wait. Jared kissed her and pushed her down onto his ridiculously neat bed.

"Jared."

His mom knocked on the wall, and they both scrambled up. This time Kim knew she was blushing. She could feel the heat in her cheeks.

"You need to clean your room." The woman smirked.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about being late with this chapter. I had final exams to study for. **


	19. The Last Supper

**Chapter Nineteen: The Last Supper**

* * *

"Concentrate and breathe, what do you smell?"

"Hot dogs...with ketchup. Sweat. Fear."

"People can't smell fear."

"It smells like silence."

"How poetic." Brighton uncovered Kim's eyes. "Try again, what do you smell?"

Kim closed her eyes again, and let out slow even breaths. What did she smell? At the table there were hot dogs lathered in ketchup. She could smell the grease and the sweet processed tomatoes. To her right, Brighton sat, and he hadn't showered in a while. She could pick out the stench of sweat on his skin. What else? There was the fruity shampoo that her mother had bought a few days before. And, of course, there was the silence. Synaesthesia_**, **_wasn't that the literary term for it? Dogs could smell fear- Kim remembered learning that in elementary school, but people couldn't. They could feel fear, though. Eyes closed and breaths deep, Kim could feel the fear in the silent eating of hot dogs lathered in ketchup and the absence of Emily from the room.

"You should take a shower." Kim opened her eyes. "Your stench is distracting, Brighton. I can't concentrate on anything else."

"Ha ha."

He flicked her forehead with so little force Kim hardly felt it, but she made a great show of rubbing her forehead.

There was one day until the Volturi's arrival, that was the reason for the silence. Alice had clocked it to one day, she thought, and Sam, Jared, and Paul were off running patrols to check for citings while Jacob, Seth and Leah were waiting with the Cullens. The rest of the two packs sat either outside of Emily's house or at the kitchen table. Brighton and Kim sat away from the group, their voices the only ones in the house, and even the two of them were muffled.

"Are they going to let you fight?"

Kim wanted the answer to be no even though she knew Brighton's revenge was more important to him than his life. He'd been a good friend to her over the past few days, and Jared had even muttered an apology to Brighton.

"I'll fight whether they let me or not," Brighton stated. "I'll just have to sneak in."

"Think you can beat him?"

"I probably can't." He gave a little smile. "You missed the cinnamon candle in the bedroom, Febreeze in the bathroom, grass in the lawn, and cherry wood...just to name a few."

"_Boys are stupid_." Kim remembered sitting in her mother's bedroom with tears smarting. She'd been eleven and Paul and his mom had left the house a few hours before.

Her mom had laughed. _"Boys will always be stupid, but one day you're going to fall in love with one, and you won't care quite so much."_

"_Never."_

"Boys are stupid." Kim muttered it now. "So are five hundred year old men." She glared at Brighton. "You'd fight someone that you know you're going to lose to. Why?"

"For honor," he explained. "I have to try to kill him, even if I can't."

That word again. Kim supposed Brighton was actually from a time where honor meant everything. She wasn't though.

"It's time."

Sam entered the house. Jared, Paul, Jacob, Leah, and Seth were all with him. The pack members scrambled in behind them, and the ones who sat at the table all turned to stare. Kim and Brighton did likewise. At the sound of Sam's voice, Emily emerged, and Rachel Black with her.

"The Volturi will be here tomorrow, so it's time to make a decision," Sam explained. "If we go to war, we may not come out alive, but if we don't...there are worse possibilities," he finalized. "Jacob and I have agreed to go to war, but no one else will be forced to fight."

"I will," Seth interrupted. "Edward is my friend."

"I'll protect my brother." Leah piped in. "And the tribe." She added the second part as an afterthought.

"Me too." Paul didn't smile, and he didn't make his statement with any enthusiasm.

"I'll follow your lead, Sam." Jared's expression was stoic.

Kim glanced around the room and noticed for the first time, four boys that she was sure were younger than Austin. They all looked terrified, and one of the boys seemed to be trying to hide behind his hot dog.

"I'd like to stay." It was Quil who spoke up. He'd entered by himself after the group. "Claire just got back."

Jacob nodded.

"I'll go." Embry gave a little smile. "It's been boring around here recently."

"Us too, we want to go." Brady's excitement was poorly masked, and beside him Collin looked equally as thrilled.

"I don't want to go." One of the new boys spoke up, and the boy who sat next to him nodded in agreement.

The other two looked at each other as if they were not sure what they wanted to do before they nodded, simultaneously. "We'll go," they decided.

"Me too." Brighton spoke up, and Kim's head flashed to him. "I know you don't want me, and I won't be any use in the daytime to you, but I want to come anyway. I'll do what I can to distract them, and if we fight into the night, I'll kill Felix."

Sam looked as though he wanted to argue with Brighton, Kim surely did, but he simply turned to Jacob.

"Okay." Jacob Black smiled. "We could use all the help we can get."

Kim had expected Brighton to jump for joy if he was accepted, but instead, he just nodded. A smile did, however, erupted across his face.

"I'll see you later, Kim." He pulled her into a tight hug. "I have to come back for my only friend."

"See you later, Brighton." Kim waved as he headed to the door, and she watched as he disappeared with Sam, Jake and the packs out the door.

Silence took over again. Kim closed her eyes and started to breathe, slowly and deeply. Yes, she could smell the fear, no matter what Brighton said, and she could feel it as it burrowed in her chest.

"Are you hungry, Kim?" Emily's hands shook as she stood behind the kitchen counter. "You should eat something."

"I'm not hungry. I'm going outside."

What was outside? Just the heavy summer winds and the clear blue sky. Outside, Kim leaned against the side of Emily's house and stared at the clouds, and she found more silence. Silence made good company though, and in it, she allowed her mind to grab onto what Sam had said _"we may not come out alive."_ She pictured Sam and Paul carrying in Jared's body.

Tears slipped down her cheeks at the thought, heavy tears that she couldn't stop as she started to wipe at her face.

"You better not die." She spoke to the silence. "If you die, I'll kill you."

* * *

**A/N: So, Chapter 20 isn't written yet. I'm thinking a week to write and one to beta, so it should be up by June 2****nd****. It's probably going to be pretty long. **


	20. The Cold Ones

**A/N: I got lazy. The house got struck by lightning, and I lost internet. Here's the chapter. Not nearly as long as I wanted it to be.**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty: The Cold Ones**

* * *

Jared had grown up with the legends, and he'd always thought that they were stupid. Men who could turn into wolves; stuff like that belonged in kids' books. He didn't read kids' books or any books really. He'd preferred to race his Hot Wheels and crush his friends at Super Mario Bros.

He still didn't think that being a wolf was particularly awesome. It had its perks of course; speed, stellar eyesight, and super fast healing. But, it also meant heading to his death in defense of a sworn enemy. Also, fleas. Not even his parents knew he had a secret stash of medication just in case. Paul had gotten fleas; Jared had gotten paranoid.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah, Sam."

He was ready, mostly. Physically he was in his prime, perfect condition for ripping apart vampires, but his mind was far away. He should have said goodbye to Kim. Just a wave, at least. Jared had been afraid to, though. Terrified that if he said goodbye, it would mean forever.

The Cullens' house sat in the distance, and the Cullens stood in front of it. Dead and frozen, they disgusted him. The pack was only here because of Renesmee, Jared knew that, and he understood that she needed to be protected, for Jacob's sake. He didn't see why the rest of the Cullens had to be kept alive, though. Couldn't Renesmee be taken to some far away safe place? That would be safer, wouldn't it?

"No." Sam answered his thoughts. "You know why that wouldn't work."

Jared shuffled into the view of the Cullens. It was possible that they might come out alive, at least some of them. Was it wrong to wish he would be one of the survivors? Yes, it was, but he still wished for it.

"Concentrate." It was a general command; Jared was not the only one who was distracted.

Beside him, Paul's mind was consumed with Cheetos and Rachel, mostly Rachel, but he was wishing that he'd thought to eat Cheetos before they'd headed out.

Brady and Colin were excited. They'd seen the Volturi before, but they'd never actually fought vampires. They didn't realize how anti-climactic it could be, and how terrifying it could become.

Then, there were the others, of the seven new wolves who had come; two had turned in the past month, Landon and Bryce. Jared forgot how old they were, but he thought they should have stayed behind.

As they approached, Jacob shared his thoughts with Sam.

"The Cullens have agreed that it would be safer if Renesmee was away from the fight. We could-"

"They're here!" The little vampire, Alice, screamed her declaration.

Great, they were a day early. _Head in the game_. He coached himself as Sam and Jacob continued their discussion, and the wolves formed a line. Jacob's pack to the left of the Cullens, and Sam's to the right. Renesmee was on Jacob's back.

"Go, Jake."

Was that Bella? He couldn't be sure. Her voice had changed since she'd been turned. Obediently, Jacob took off, and Jared couldn't help but think that Leah was faster and should have been the one to take Renesmee.

Leah, apparently, shared his thought because she followed after Jacob and Renesmee. With his peripherals on Leah and Jacob, Jared refocused on where Alice was looking.

From the woods, they emerged. The bloodsuckers drifted in their dark capes with their blood red eyes, and Jared counted them by their smell. There were less of them than there had been the year before, but that was hardly a comforting thought. At least twenty members of the Volturi had arrived, and they were ready to attack.

"It's just the guard." Sam sent back his thought.

Jared hardly registered the comment, or the fact that the small, female vampire was ordering the attack. His attention was on Felix, the leech who Brighton was so intent on killing. The one who'd caused the death of Kim's friends, and he was headed straight for Jacob and Leah.

"Don't, Jared."

Sam's command cut through his willpower, and he was frozen as Embry knocked Felix away from Jacob.

"Focus."

Sam instructed again, but Jared couldn't. This wasn't like the other battles. It was personal, and a part of him was threatening to break away from the fight.

_Focus_, he instructed himself. _You have to focus. _

He pulled his gaze from Felix, and focused on the attackers, standing in a line with utter confidence. On their side, Bella stood, her face frozen in concentration. He assumed that she was holding onto her shield. There was something wrong, though. The Volturi were too confident in spite of the fact that many of their attacks would be useless. And what about the fact that the wolves had come to fight? Shouldn't that concern them more?

He received his answer almost immediately. Bella suddenly crumpled onto the ground, a bloodsucker on top of her and chaos exploded. The leech Jared thought was Edward, managed to yank the Volturi off of Bella, but a moment later he was writhing under the little Volturi female's glare.

"Jane." Sam cursed the word.

Jared remembered Jane from what Jacob had said once. She was gifted with being able to create unimaginable pain in people. However, Bella's shield blocked her. But, if Bella was incapacitated then they were all at risk. They were all dead.

Embry had been in a snapping match with Felix since he'd managed to block him from Jacob. Let's see whose jaws are bigger and whose venom spreads faster. It wasn't a particularly fun game, but it was one he was used to playing when it came to vamps. He lunged for Felix's neck once again which was when he saw one of the Volturi ripping at Edward.

His momentary lapse was enough to give Felix the upper hand. The vampire flipped Embry on his back crushing the wolf's stomach with his forearm.

"I liked that girl," he hissed, "even if she was a diversion."

Embry whimpered, but he was unable to move and a moment later, Felix's teeth sunk into his flesh.

The pain was excruciating. His vision went red and he started to writhe, unable to focus.

"Hold on, Embry."

He thought it was Seth, but he wasn't sure. The pain was too great.

Felix screamed, and a haze that looked like the renegade werewolf, Brighton, pulled away from the vampire's throat. Felix fell to the ground, tearing at his throat. Whatever poison Brighton carried in his mouth, the venom was much stronger than anything Embry could have concocted. A moment later, Sam and Paul were on the vampire.

"Jared'll be pissed." The thought drifted through Embry's conscious, and then he passed out.

Jacob was angry. He'd been stupid not to think that getting Nessie away from the fight was a good idea to begin with, and everyone else had been stupid to not consider it either. Now he was racing to La Push with Afton on his tail. He wished Leah was still here, but he had no such luck. Seth was in trouble, and she would always protect her brother first.

Afton was gaining on him and it wasn't much farther until he cleared the perimeter of the battle. Jacob swerved, a moment too late, and Afton crashed on top of him. They both rolled, closer to the battle, and in a moment Renesmee was thrown.

Afton grinned and Jacob tackled him. He went for his throat, snapping his jaws, and the vampire threw out an arm slamming Jacob into a tree. It stung, but he forced himself up for another attack.

The vampire ran towards him, pumping his arms. He threw out his feet in front of him, ready to crush them into Jacob's chest. The wolf leaped, and his claws came down across the stone of Afton's face.

Jacob always hated the tearing sound that followed as he pulled away chunks of flesh. It wasn't nearly enough for a deadly blow, but it was a start. He could win this fight.

Renesmee screamed.

The sound caused pain to shoot through his body, and in an instant Jacob forgot about Afton and turned to his imprint and the object in her hands, her father's head.

Jared heard the scream, but it didn't register until the leech had thrown Jacob to the ground. His fangs were bared, ready to sink in as Jared ripped him away.

The bloodsucker's head flew back, clasped in Jared's jaws, and Jared tossed it away in disgust. Leah took care of the rest. She ripped into the vampire, freeing Jacob and then the alpha was racing away in hot pursuit of Renesmee who clutched onto Seth's fur.

"Jared!"

Sam's call pulled his focus, and he caught sight of his alpha fighting with the same vampire that had attacked Bella.

"I'm coming. We're all going to die, aren't we?"

The thought still played in his mind with as much strength as it had to begin with, and he didn't try and push it away. Instead, Jared ripped at the vampire with that thought prominently in his mind. _I'm going to die, but every bloodsucker I kill means there's more of a chance that Kim will live._

Brighton leaned against a tree as he did his best to keep his breathing under control. Felix was dead. It was a realization that should have brought him much more joy then he realized it did. After all, Felix might be dead, but Brighton wasn't going to be alive, at least not for much longer. The sun wasn't going to set for a while, and he'd been injured more than once in this fight.

Was it worth it? That was what this all came down to. Felix was dead; he'd accomplished what he'd been hoping for since his family was brutally murdered. If it wasn't worth it then he would have lived and died for nothing.

Yes, Brighton decided. It was worth it to get his revenge. Knowing that his family was avenged made his impending death easier to bear.

It was his last thought before Demetri rushed forward and snapped his neck, seconds before Brighton even registered the vampire's presence.

* * *

**A/N: How do you feel about the potential character deaths I set up?**


	21. The Hybrid's Lament

**Chapter Twenty-One: The Hybrid's Lament**

When she was younger, Kim had had a habit of biting her fingernails. She'd started by just chewing the tips of the nail when she was bored, but by the time she was in fifth grade it had evolved into a nervous disorder where her teeth would scratch away at not just the nail but also the skin of her fingers. When she started coming home from school after a test with band-aids wrapped around each finger her mother had determined she would break Kim out of the habit. She had tried everything – threats of malformed fingers, nail polish remover and alcohol, even hot sauce. Nothing had worked. Finally, she dragged Kim to a doctor who had made her practice breathing exercises and established a reward system that Kim's mother followed until the habit was finally broken.

Kim's nails rested between her teeth, now, though she hadn't gone as far as biting them. She was sitting in Emily's kitchen, and her stress level was rising faster than the day before the SAT exam. At least then she'd known that she was leaving the testing room with at least a 2250 and that she could take it again. Life didn't have the same second chances.

Emily was sitting on the couch talking to Rachel in a low voice about something Kim didn't care to eavesdrop on. Of the wolves that had chosen not to fight, only Quil remained in Emily's house, but he was on guard. His eyes were fastened on the window of the house as if he knew something that the others hadn't considered. Kim knew what he was thinking. He was afraid they were going to lose and that the Volturi were going to come here.

Kim's nail broke under the force of her teeth.

Only Claire seemed not to catch onto the situation. She sat in the middle of the floor playing with Barbie dolls, and Kim knew it was only a few minutes before she asked one of them to play with her. Quil would agree; Kim hoped. She wondered if it was possible that in the face of possible death, he was no longer concerned about satisfying Claire's Barbie dolls. Would that be a "needs of the many" thing or an "ends justify the means" thing? She'd go with Machiavelli on this one.

"Play with me?"

Claire climbed into the chair beside Kim and placed her dolls on the table.

Kim's fingers fell from her mouth and she forced as tight smile onto her face. She wanted to say "no", but she knew better. The last thing anyone wanted was for Claire to get scared.

She reached for the blonde Barbie and Claire smiled. Unlike Kim's smile, it naturally spread across her face as she petted the dark hair of her other Barbie doll.

"Katie." Claire pointed to the blonde Barbie. "And Hope." She held her doll up higher so that the plastic doll wiggled in front of Kim's face.

A pounding on the door caused Kim to jump, and the sudden movement caused Claire's smile to drop as though she now knew something was off. A moment later, Quil swung open the door, and Seth and Jacob stumbled in. Renesmee stood beside them, tears in her eyes but neither boy explained as the door closed behind them.

"Renesmee needs to stay here." Jacob's breath was heavy, and Kim noticed that his arm was hanging useless at his side. He was injured, and although he healed quickly, Kim wasn't sure if he was in a position to go back into the fight. "We're going to head back. The fight is getting worse."

"Jake, you should stay." Seth's voice was a pitch below panicked and now both Emily and Rachel were fixated on the four standing at the door. "He should stay." Seth said it to Quil now.

"No." Jacob's voice cut through Seth's resolve and even Kim could hear the power of the Alpha behind it.

"What's wrong?" Claire pulled at Kim's shirt and she turned. The little girl looked at the point of tears herself, now.

"Nothing." Kim pulled Claire onto her lap. "Tell me about your Barbies"

Claire hesitated for a moment, but then she started to talk about Katie and Hope. She stumbled over words and moved the dolls around as she spoke about parties and dress-up. Kim was only half-focused on Claire, and the rest of her mind was on Seth and Quil at the door and Renesmee who stayed glued to Jacob's side. Her tears were freely falling now down her porcelain cheeks, but Jacob didn't seem to notice. Emily did, though, and she pulled Renesmee away from the door and into the living room with her and Rachel.

"I'm going." Quil spoke, and Claire stopped her speech abruptly. "I'll go in your place, Jake."

Jacob shook his head. "I'm going too."

Seth sighed, but didn't argue this time. Besides, Jacob was healing now.

"Quil's going?"

Claire peered up at Kim, her dark eyes welling with tears. Emily had told Kim that the little girl had started to equate Quil with safety ever since she'd been returned from the Volturi. As long as he was nearby she was okay, but once he went away she got nervous. At Quil's announcement, the waterworks exploded, and Claire was instantly the center of Quil's attention.

He turned, pain etched on his face and then he sucked in a deep breath to regain control before he rushed out of the door. Jacob and Seth followed, and the door slammed behind them.

"Is Claire-bear going to be a big girl?"

Emily questioned as she and Rachel came to the kitchen, Renesmee's hand in her own, and the girl sat down at the table. Claire didn't answer and instead chose to turn, burrowing her head in Kim's neck.

"She'll be okay." Emily's reassurance was self-directed, but Kim nodded anyway.

Kim wished that she was at home. The selfish thought crept into her head as she held onto Claire and observed the silent, crying Renesmee. She'd never been the type to take care of anyone except Austin, and that was only sometimes. Babysitting Austin or finding a Band-Aid when he fell on his face was different than this. Kim hadn't been prepared for this. There weren't classes on what to do during a werewolf/vampire war. Kim wasn't gifted; she'd just studied. There were books on babysitting and driving and even on dealing with crushes. Her 4.0 had come from a determination to get an A on a Calculus test and figure out Stoichiometry even if it killed her. It wasn't being safe Kim wanted, but being at peace in her bedroom with a pair of headphones so she could block out the world. The nervous feeling was growing, and she could feel the growing urge to rip at her nails again.

Kim forced the thought away and noticed that Claire had stopped crying or at least making noise as she did it. Instead, she gently breathed on Kim's shoulder until a smiling Rachel came over and lifted her up.

"You looked uncomfortable." She explained, and Kim offered a sheepish smile.

Claire had fallen asleep in the way toddlers always did that usually made Kim insanely jealous, but right now she was just relieved. Kim just hoped Claire didn't have nightmares.

"You should eat something, Nessie." Emily started to rifle through the refrigerator when the girl didn't answer.

Kim wasn't sure what had made Renesmee cry, but whatever it was she was still traumatized by it. She hadn't stopped her silent crying since she'd arrived, and she didn't seem to register anything going on around her. It reminded Kim of when Brad had died, and how she'd been frozen with crippling shock.

"I have steak." Emily tried. She even ripped off the plastic covering of the raw meat and slid it onto a plate, but Renesmee didn't move.

Kim's fingers found her teeth again, and she started nibbling. How bad is it? The question started in her mind. What was really going on in the battle? Were they really losing, and how bad? Images flashed through her mind of the Cullens and the wolves dead. What about Brighton? There was no way her new friend would be able to make it until night fell, and the sun was still bright outside. What about Jar-? No!

"Kim!" Emily's voice cut through her thoughts, and Kim noticed that there was blood running down her finger. Her nail hung jagged off of her finger, and blood pulsed out of the cut where her teeth had broken into the skin. It stung, but it wasn't the kind of sting that could be pushed away as an annoyance.

Emily stopped coaxing Renesmee to eat. "I'm going to get something for that." She left the room, and Kim noticed that now Renesmee was looking at her, not through her, not past her, but directly at her.

As if guessing what she was going to do, Rachel frowned.

"Here." Kim pushed her bleeding finger in front of Renesmee's face. "Just don't take more than a liter."

Renesmee stared at her hand warily for a moment, but Kim wasn't going to back down. If this was what it took for the girl to break her shock then so be it. She'd donated blood before.

A moment later, Renesmee had Kim's finger in her mouth and Rachel face-palmed but didn't interfere. Kim guessed she wasn't in too much danger if the woman responded that way.

It was like the American Red Cross all over again, and Kim knew that when this was over, she was probably going to pass out and end up being handed cookies until she ate enough to please the person in charge. For now, though, she was okay, even if she was starting to feel light-headed.

Renesmee finished as Emily walked back into the room, and the woman sent a look of disapproval directly at Kim, but it was only half-genuine because even though Renesmee wasn't smiling and the waterworks hadn't completely stopped, her eyes were alive again.

She reached up her hand and touched Kim's face.

_Thank you_, the message said, and with it there was an image of Jared in wolf form tearing into a red-eyed vampire.


	22. The Retreat

**Chapter Twenty-Two: The Retreat**

Was it morning? Kim's eyes fluttered open to sunlight streaming through the blinds, but she didn't know if she'd been asleep for three hours or twelve. Renesmee lay asleep on her stomach, and the child was just heavy enough that Kim couldn't move. The scent of pancake batter wafted around the room accompanied by the popping sound of cooking bacon and the hushed voices of Emily and Rachel. So, it was morning then. That meant the battle had lasted all night. Kim felt her stomach tighten.

"You're awake."

Emily called over to Kim, and Renesmee shifted and clambered off the couch. Kim sat up, and Emily smiled back at her. It wasn't a real smile and her eyes were crinkled with worry. On the floor, Claire pushed around a pink Barbie limousine without enthusiasm. Rachel Black was crouched beside her with encouraging words that had little effect.

"It looks like you have a new best friend, Kim." Emily continued with her false cheer.

"Nessie just really likes O -" Rachel joined in. Her voice was stronger than Emily's, and there was confidence behind it. Kim wondered, not for the first time, if Rachel would have phased if she'd stayed in La Push longer. Kim could imagine her as an Alpha. In a lot of ways she had a more commanding presence than her younger brother.

"I won't tell." Renesmee's voice chimed as she spoke to Kim.

Kim wanted to laugh at the situation. She had a secret with a one year old that looked like she was four. Everything else stopped her, though. With her alertness, came the renewed fear. Not just for Jared and Brighton, but for everyone including herself. As selfish as it was, Kim thought she might be most afraid for herself and her oblivious family. She knew her father was only thinking about how long he was going to ground her for, if he was home. Austin's biggest concern would be how to avoid reading _The Outsiders_ and win his new Zelda game. Death wasn't on his mind, and it shouldn't be. She was relieved that he was safe from phasing, but she couldn't help but wonder if by phasing he might be safer than the rest of them were about to be.

"Come and eat."

Emily doled out the pancakes and bacon onto platters and then placed them on the counter. However, neither Kim nor Renesmee walked over. Instead, Renesmee dashed to the front door and flung it open.

"Jake!" She chimed, but then she fell silent.

Jacob Black entered Emily's house with Embry on his back. The other boy didn't move. Quil followed in behind, supporting the rest of Embry's body.

"Sit down, Quil." Jacob's voice was hard. "You've been bitten."

Quil obeyed, but even with his head lowered Kim could tell he was in pain. She climbed off of the couch, Emily and Rachel behind her, and fastened her eyes on Embry. He wasn't breathing. In fact, as Jacob laid him onto the ground he didn't even seem to register that it was his friend he'd been carrying. Embry's head hit the floor with a thud and, with a sigh, Jacob leaned down. That's when Kim realized, he was dead. Embry's eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open. Jacob closed his eyes and, grabbing a blanket from the couch, he covered Embry's body.

"He fought bravely."

Rachel nodded in acknowledgement but turned away from the dead body. Kim could hear Emily sobbing finally losing herself to grief. Claire shuffled over to Quil, his presence reassuring her, and Renesmee reached for Emily's hand to comfort her. Jacob, though, did not shed a tear. He simply stood and met Kim's eyes because she was the only one who would meet his.

"I have to go back."

His departure was sudden and the door slammed behind him. Kim took a seat on the floor and stared at the cloth that covered Embry. How had it happened? It wasn't a question that she really wanted an answer to. Why? Was probably a better question, but by now Kim knew that it was one without an answer.

_No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow. _She thought of the quote, and then she became angry at herself for doing so. Euripides had no place on the floor of Emily's house near Embry's body. Embry had saved her life more than once. He deserved more than a place on Emily's floor, but Kim understood the urgency though surely his mother wouldn't. She didn't even know what Embry had done.

_You were a good person. I hope you'll be happy now. I'll miss you_. She said her silent eulogy.

The door opened again, and this time it was Leah and Paul. Behind them was Dr. Cullen, the same one who had treated Brad back in junior year. He smiled at Kim, recognizing her, and then went straight for Quil. Claire didn't move as he approached, but Kim noticed that Quil's face twisted. He was uncomfortable, Kim realized, with Claire so near the doctor, but there was nothing he could do. Claire wouldn't move, and Emily wouldn't make her. Of course, Emily hardly had any control anymore.

Leah and Paul looked to be in an argument, but eventually Leah dashed out of the house leaving only Paul behind.

"Someone has to tell Billy and Sue about Embry," Paul explained. "Leah's going." He slid onto the ground next to where Rachel was now seated.

"How is it going?" Rachel's voice was still strong as she asked the question, but even so Kim knew she was worried.

"The Volturi guard came to get fast revenge on the Cullens," Paul explained. "They were unprepared for a fight. Now we're in a stalemate. With Edward and Bella gone," he sent a quick look at Rensemee, but she was so concerned with Emily she didn't seem to notice, "no one is protected from the two little vampires," he continued. "And we can't communicate with the vamps without phasing back, which would be a death sentence."

"So?" Rachel pressed, but Paul didn't continue. He looked tired to Kim, and she wondered if he, too, was injured. "Dr. Cullen?" Rachel changed direction.

"It's too late to recruit help." Dr. Cullen didn't turn from Quil as he spoke and continued to monitor his heart rate. "But the Volturi can't afford to lose any more essential members of the guard, either. It's become a war of attrition."

Attrition. Kim hated the comparison. It was based too much on a style of warfare that they weren't using. One-on-one fighting the side with more people would win; that was attrition, but that wasn't what was happening. Who knew how their story would end? Even if they lived, the costs were already mounting. She didn't know Renesmee's parents, but if they really were dead it would hurt more than just Renesmee. And with Embry gone it would be hard on the pack. What if there were more deaths? What was the point of winning if almost everyone was killed because of it? Thinking about it that way, Kim wasn't sure that she valued her life more than everyone else. Wasn't that the problem with immortality? Eventually everyone else dies and you're all alone. Of course, Kim wouldn't be alone. She'd have Austin and her parents – _Stop!_ She scolded herself. This wasn't the way to think, especially not now. They could still win. This could all still end happily ever after. Optimism. She'd heard somewhere that if you think positively hard enough for long enough, good things happened. It didn't make sense, but for now she chose to believe it. It would make her feel better.

_We'll win¸_ she thought to herself. _Embry will have died for something._

That was when the door swung open a third time, and in the doorway stood three vampires in dark cloaks with murder on their minds.


	23. The Sacrifice Play

**A/N: So this chapter is early, but since it's already written and already betad I figured why not post it.**

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**Chapter Twenty-Three: The Sacrifice Play**

_I am dead_. A stupid thought, Kim realized, but it was the only one passing through her mind. She stared at the vampires, along with everyone else in the room. They stared back for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was probably mere seconds. Then there was a tearing sound and Paul and Quil landed in front of her, growling. The noise awakened everyone, except Kim. All around her there was a flurry of motion, but she couldn't move as the wolves and Dr. Cullen engaged the Volturi. Who was winning, she didn't know. Their motions were a haze of color that she could barely follow. _I'm not dead_, she thought. And then she was running. Only she wasn't. She was being pulled out of the back door by Rachel. Kim's feet moved on their own, but her mind was too fuzzy to make sense of much else.

A slap in the face changed that. The force of Rachel's palm stung against her cheek, but it forced her into alertness. Claire was crying in Emily's arms, and Renesmee's eyes were darting around, her advanced hearing telling her that something was going wrong.

She stretched her arms towards Kim as if she wanted to be picked up, and Kim complied.

_Run. _The hybrid instructed. _They're coming._

A moment later the door cracked, and Kim ran. She didn't check to see if Emily, Rachel, and Claire followed. She ran with Renesmee in her arms with the thought that Renesmee probably had a better chance without her. She wondered if the girl knew this, figured she did, and then ignored it. If they were going to die, and they most definitely were going to die, it would be better to do so together, she supposed.

In seventh grade, Kim was known for having had the slowest time on the track. Clocked at fifteen minutes, Brad used to run circles around her. Sometimes Samantha would jog alongside her because she felt bad, but neither of her friends encouraged her when she voiced her intentions to join the middle school track team. She dropped out after the first three days.

If there was something Kim knew, it was that if she couldn't outrun seventh graders, she definitely couldn't outrun a vampire. Her only hope, she knew was to get somewhere where it was crowded. That way, the aggressor couldn't kill her without exposing itself.

_First Beach_. Renesmee sent the message as if she was reading her mind, and Kim obeyed. She pushed through the summer heat and her growling stomach, and wished that adrenaline really worked the way it claimed too. Mothers who lifted cars to save their children never talked about worrying that their muscles would be sore the next day or what the grinding on their teeth felt like as they exerted themselves. Kim wondered if they noticed it.

"Kim!"

Renesmee's voice was shrill, and Kim turned around in time to see one of the cloaked vampires headed towards her in a haze. Her first reaction was to shield Renesmee even though she knew it'd be useless. She did so anyway, covering the girl's body with her own.

_Crack!_

The noise caused Kim to turn, and she noticed two wolves launching themselves onto the vampire. They were tiny, and she recognized them as the boys that had decided to stay home. As they tore away at the vampire, Kim glanced around, nervously. Where were the others? Had they gotten Claire? No. She couldn't think of that, not now. She pushed herself forward, still holding onto Renesmee and kept running towards the Beach. They had to still be fighting Paul, Quil, and Dr. Cullen, Kim rationalized. It was the only option; the others were fine.

The beach was crowded when they arrived, and no one seemed to notice them except a boy on the fringes of the group. He couldn't have been more than ten, but his eyes were wide as he stared at the two of them and then past them.

"Something smells bad." He complained. "Something smells really bad."

His mother ignored him, turning back to her book, and the boy headed away from his mother and closer to Kim and Renesmee. His eyes were ablaze, and he kept his hand pinched over his nose.

"Something smells bad," he repeated as he passed them.

Kim knew what was going to happen soon, but she couldn't be worried about that now. She was responsible for Renesmee. Lowering the girl to the ground, Kim took her hand and together they weaved through the crowd. There were two more vampires around, and Kim didn't think that simply being in a large crowd was going to stop them anymore. It was best to make themselves indistinguishable from the others. That was easy for Kim, but she doubted it would be as easy for her companion.

"We're going to go to my house." Kim whispered it, but she knew Renesmee heard it. It was possible that they wouldn't be any safer at her house than they would be in the middle of the crowded beach, but at least they'd be harder to get to. Besides, Sam would appreciate it if she died away from the masses. That way, the story would be easier to cover.

Renesmee didn't say anything, and if she thought there was a better idea, she didn't offer it. She kept a firm grip on Kim's hand as they started the trek to Kim's house with both of them constantly looking around to see if they were being followed. _Maybe the other two were killed_. It wasn't an impossible speculation. After all, it had been three on two, but then if one managed to get away what did that mean? Quil was injured after all.

"Don't worry." Renesmee smiled. "Jared's coming."

"What?"

But she was right. A moment later, Jared came up to them completely in human form. Like Paul, he looked tired, but otherwise he seemed relatively uninjured.

"Kim." He sighed the word like it was a prayer. "You have to go home. The battle's moved away from Forks to La Push. They're all coming."

Was that fear in his voice? Yes, most definitely. He wasn't just scared, he was terrified.

"I'll take you," he continued.

"No." Kim's voice was stronger than she thought it would be. "We'll go alone. I'll take Nessie." She was surprised to notice that Renesmee nodded her agreement.

Jared shook his head, quickly observing his surroundings. "Jacob will gleefully murder me if I leave Renesmee in your care, and I'd kill myself if anything happened to you." Kim hated that he made the statement as simply like he was ordering a burger from McDonalds as if he held his life in so little respect in comparison to her own.

"How's Jake?"

Renesmee asked the question when Jared kneeled down in front of her.

Jared just smiled. "Jacob? He's a tough son of a bitch born to be Alpha." And then, as if he realized he'd just cussed in front of a toddler, he bowed his head in apology. "You ready?"

Renesmee nodded, and Kim decided not to argue the point any longer. Jared would stay with them, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Someone screamed, and Jared fell to the ground in human form. A vampire pinned him down, fangs glistening with fresh blood. Kim stumbled back, clutching onto Renesmee.

"Run!"

Jared gasped the word, but she didn't move. If he couldn't phase he was dead, and the vampire was leaving no room for that. Kim couldn't breathe. Her chest was tightening, but there was also nothing she could do except hold Renesmee tighter.

Renesmee lifted up her hand and pressed it to Kim's cheek, tears springing in the little girl's eyes.

"Nora." It was just a whisper that escaped Kim's lips in response to Renesmee. Only it wasn't what she was thinking at all. She was thinking of Ms. Linde and Hester Prynne and even the Third Wife, but mostly she was thinking _Jared_. She was thinking that Jared was going to die, and her life would be over. She was thinking that she finally understood what he meant by not being able to live without her. _Juliet_, she thought. _No reservations this time. If you're going to die then we might as well die together."_

There was something good about living near a beach. There were always shells. With her eyes fixed on Jared, she lifted one where the edges were still jagged.

"Run, Renesmee."

If the girl was going to listen, Kim didn't know because a moment later she stabbed it into the vein in her arm the blood drive people always used. Pain? No. Just a vertical spray of blood. The vampire turned and rushed towards Kim and then stumbled back at the force of Renesmee's punch. Then Jared was on it. The wolf having completely taken over, it started tearing, and Kim noticed black dots dancing in front of her face.

"I think you hit something important." A disembodied voice floated around in her mind, and everything went dark.

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**A/N: I'm back at college eating cold noodles and wearing four layers of clothes because my room is so cold. Feel bad for me? Drop a review. **


	24. Universal Blood Donor

**A/N: The Last Chapter! If you haven't already, please please vote on my poll.**

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**Chapter Twenty-Four: Universal Blood Donor**

When Kim woke up, she was thirsty. No, she was hungry. No, her head hurt…a lot. Her arm was stiff and her entire elbow was wrapped in gauze. A thermometer lay on the dresser along with a glass of water. Sitting up, Kim took the glass and finished the water, but it did little to make her feel better.

"Do you know what the brachial artery is?"

Sue Clearwater sat at the edge of her bed, a frown on her face. Kim hadn't noticed her at first, but now she nodded.

The brachial artery extended from the shoulder to the elbow, and slicing it was fatal. Damaging it meant immediate medical attention. Sue was only asking her to prove a point, Kim knew, but the fact that she was alive meant she hadn't sliced her artery.

"You punctured it," Sue explained, still frowning. "You had to have a blood transfusion and you were out cold for three days. If it hadn't been for Dr. Cullen, we would have had to call your parents."

Kim gulped at her saliva, but she did it more out of thirst than because she was nervous. Three days, she knew, was a long time.

"Just because we tell you the legends doesn't mean that you get to act them out as you see fit!"

Sue wasn't frowning anymore. She just looked angry.

Kim nodded and kept nodding. "I'm sorry." And hungry. "It'll never happen again, I swear…promise." She started to fold her hands together, but pain shot up her arm the moment she lifted it.

Sue grunted and the door creaked open.

"I thought you were brave." Seth didn't look at his mother as he entered the room and presented Kim with a hamburger. She smiled.

"Stupid you mean," Leah argued.

"Jacob agrees with me." Seth shot back. "He says thanks. Y'know, for watching Nessie."

Kim bit into the hamburger as a response. It was perfect. Maybe because she was starving, but Kim was sure she'd never tasted a burger as good as the one that she was eating now.

"Oh!" Seth spoke again, remembering something. "Your dad called your cell phone. Unless Sam let's you spill the secrets, you're grounded for the rest of your life."

Kim's happiness evaporated and she dropped the burger back onto the plate. How could she have forgotten about her dad? Well, she had been unconscious for three days.

"Did he sound angry?"

Seth nodded without pausing, and Sue smiled just a little bit. Kim wondered if she was thinking 'justice' behind that smile. Kim wouldn't doubt it.

"Leah," Sue turned to her daughter. "Go to Kim's house. Get some more clothes. If we return her to her parents like this who knows what will happen."

Leah left without arguing, and Seth took a seat on the ground against the wall.

"Is everything okay now?" Kim asked. Sue had said she'd been out for three days after all. Did that mean everything was back to normal?

"The Volturi left, if that's what you mean," Seth answered. "They'll be back, though and probably with more vampires next time."

Kim nodded, but she noticed that Seth didn't seem too happy with the partial victory. Embry's dead, she remembered. Part of the family is gone now.

"We lost a lot of people, too," Seth continued. "Not just Embry, but Edward and Bella, and two of the new wolves – Jesse and Landon. Also, Brighton." He paused as he waited to gauge Kim's reaction, but she didn't have one. Maybe it was because she hadn't expected her friend to make it, or maybe because her whole body felt numb, but she couldn't respond to the news. "Quil almost didn't make it, but Dr. Cullen literally sucked the venom out of him, and Claire cried so much that he didn't have a choice but to live." Seth cracked a small smile, but there was little joy in it. Kim was glad, though, to know that Claire was safe. She could focus on that, now, and she'd grieve for Brighton later.

Two hours later, Sue cleared her for discharge, and Kim dressed in the clothes that Leah had snatched from her open window. Seth and Leah had left to be with Jacob's pack. Their mourning for Embry would be done with the Cullens for now since Jacob had stayed with Renesmee in her time of grieving. As for Sue, she'd left Kim on her own, confident that she'd learned her lesson and was in decent health.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Kim stood up from tying her shoe to be enveloped in a hug.

"Good, you're okay." Kim made a joke to hide her relief, but Jared didn't release her.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up. Sam had us-"

"It's fine." Kim pushed him away so that she could see him. "Really, Jared, it's okay. I had Sue to yell at me."

Jared smiled. His eyes looked tired, but his smile was real. He couldn't fake the relief that was plastered on his face.

"Kim." He held her chin with his fingers. "Thank you, but don't ever save my life again."

"Promise."

This time, she hugged him. She didn't care that her father was going to ground her for life or that he'd probably ban Jared from the house for twice as long. He was alive and she was alive, and she loved him. That was enough for her.

"Do you want me to take you home?"

"No. I don't think I want to face my dad just yet."

Jared nodded. "Well, let's get out of here at least."

He drove to the cliffs at First Beach, and they sat in silence with the wind blowing their clothes. Alone with Jared, Kim found herself crying. She cried for Embry first, the boy who'd saved her life for twenty dollars that she'd never paid him. A part of this new family Kim had discovered in junior year. She cried for Brighton, the friend she'd discovered who had understood her. She hadn't known him long, but she did know that she'd lost him too soon. The only thing that made her feel slightly better was that he'd died fighting for what he had believed in.

"Do you love me, Jared?"

"Of course." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him. "Always and forever."

"You want me to stay here with you?"

"No." He shook his head and smiled.

"What if the Volturi come back?"

"Especially if the Volturi come back."

"I love you, too."

And she did. Kim loved Jared. It was something that she knew, and it bothered her to think that it had taken him to nearly die for her to understand the magnitude of it. I love you, so I'd pull a Juliet for you. She was crazy, maybe, but she also knew that it was true.

"One thing, Kim."

"Hmm…"

Jared reached into his pocket and pulled out a velvet box.

"Will you take it with you?"

Kim smiled. "Will you put it on?"

He did. Jared slipped the diamond ring onto Kim's finger. In the sunlight, it sparkled. With her thumb, Kim wiped away her remaining tears, and kissed his cheek.

"It doesn't hurt as much when I'm with you. I miss them so much, but with you, it's bearable. Now it's not just my friends, it's yours too. You're probably hurting as much as I was…am." Her voice cracked. "I just want you to know that I love you, forever and always. And together we can get through this."

"Forever and always."

Jared kissed her, and Kim kissed him back. Maybe they didn't have immortality, but they did have till death do us part, and what was bittersweet today wouldn't always be.

_I miss you Brad and you too Samantha, but I'm going to live the way you would have wanted me to. I'm going to be happy and in love until I can see you guys again. So wait for me, and one day we'll all be together. Best Friends Forever. _

The End

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**A/N: It's been fun, kiddies. Thanks to all of you who read this story. **


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